Northland Resources (NAU-V, NRSRF-O) saw its shares shoot up recently, after announcing a resource estimate for its 100%-owned iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) Hannukainen project in Finland.
Measured and indicated resources came in at 84.6 million tonnes averaging 34.6% iron, 0.2% copper and 0.093 gram gold per tonne using a cutoff grade of 15% iron.
The deposit hosts an additional 81.6 million tonnes averaging 35.7% iron, 0.13% copper and 0.036 gram gold in the inferred category.
The news had an immediate effect on the company’s share price, sending it up 23% to $4.32.
Northland completed 104 diamond-drill holes to July 23 to complement the 236 historic holes already drilled on the deposit.
Assays for 10 of the holes are pending and weren’t included in the resource calculation.
Hannukainen is made up of five IOCG deposits sitting in a 3.5-sq.-km area. The site is made up of the Laurinoja, Lauku, Kuervaara, Vuopio and Kivivuopio deposits, all of which are included in the resource estimate.
Northland says the deposits are characterized by spatially interrelated near-surface, sub-horizontal lenses of magnetite mineralization.
One zone, Laurinoja, contains a copper-rich lense that has a measured resource of 35.4 million tonnes grading 37.6% iron, 0.32% copper and 0.17 gram gold.
With the announcement of a resource estimate for Hannukainen, Northland now has two National Instrument 43-101-compliant resources on magnetite bodies in the Pajala shear zone. The other is Stora Sahavaara, which lies over the Swedish border, roughly 25 km from Hannukainen.
Northland is also working at the Tapuli deposit, which is adjacent to Stora Sahavaara, as it tries to expand a historical resource of 60 million tonnes.
Stora Sahavaara has a measured resource of 77 million tonnes grading 43.32% iron and 0.08% copper, an indicated resource of 45 million tonnes grading 43.28% iron and 0.076% copper and an inferred resource of 23.3 million tonnes grading 41.8% iron and 0.05% copper.
The Vancouver-based company is aiming to define combined resources in excess of 500 million tonnes of magnetite mineralization in the region.
Noting that Hannukainen’s resource estimate significantly builds on the historic calculation of just 66 million tonnes of ore, Buck Morrow, Northland’s president said in a statement that “the overall tonnages far exceed what we had hoped to define and reinforce that the historic resource estimates for our magnetite projects in the Pajala shear zone appear to be very conservative.”
The company is now working on draining the Laurinoja open pit to expose the prestripped magnetite mineralization. When finished, it will be able to mine a substantial bulk sample of copper-gold bearing magnetite for pilot-scale metallurgical test work.
“Bench-scale testing. . . has already produced results indicating the potential for production of a high-quality, low-sulphur magnetite concentrate in addition to a copper-gold concentrate,” Morrow said.
Hannukainen is one of a number of known IOCG-type magnetite occurrences in Finland’s Kolari district being evaluated by Northland.
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