Pellivuoma
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Location: Norrbotten Province, Northern Sweden Minerals: Iron Ownership: Northland 100% ownership of exploration permit Status: Advanced Exploration -- Resource Development (part of Kaunisvaara PEA) |
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Overview
During the spring of 2009, Northland announced the first NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate on the Pellivuoma project, confirming the presence of a substantial tonnage of surface-mineable magnetite (refer to press release dated April 29, 2009):
The resource, modeled using a cut off of 20% Fe, is:
- Total Indicated resources are 33.8 million tonnes, with an average grade of 30.1% Fe.
- Total Inferred resources are 57.0 million tonnes, with an average grade of 29.8% Fe.
Northland's vision is to develop the Kaunisvaara Mill complex, a centralized processing facility that would take feed from several iron ore mines, including Tapuli and Sahavaara. With the addition of Pellivuoma, the life of the Kaunisvaara Mill would be significantly extended beyond 20 years and capital costs discounted over larger accumulated production. The combined Measured and Indicated iron resources at Tapuli, Sahavaara and Pellivuoma total 249.68 Mt, and the Inferred iron resources are 89.74 Mt. Metallurgical test results show that a high-grade, high-quality iron concentrate can be produced from the iron mineralisation at Pellivuoma, and is comparable with the iron products that can be produced from Tapuli and Stora Sahavaara.
Pellivuoma has both the tonnage and the quality of magnetite to be a positive factor in advancing the centralized mill concept. There are several other exploration targets to be tested in the immediate area which have the potential to add additional resources for Kaunisvaara. Pellivuoma was chosen as one of the first potential satellite deposits to be tested because of the historic information available and was fast-tracked last winter because of encouraging results received from initial drill testing. The airborne geophysical survey flown for Northland by the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) in 2006 indicates other magnetic anomalies within Northland-controlled areas. Northland plans to continue its exploration program in the Kaunisvaara area to further test known targets and to develop additional targets for the future.
Property History
Northland acquired the Pellivuoma project in mid-2007 as an exploration prospect hosting a near-surface magnetite body with an historic resource (non NI 43-101 compliant) of 43 million tonnes with an average grade of 32.7% Fe, 0.04% P, and 0.58% S to a depth of approximately 200m below surface based on results from 13 holes totaling 2,494m drilled by the Geological Survey of Sweden between the years 1969-1971.
During 2008 the company drilled 12 holes totaling 1,812.65m (refer to press releases dated July 14, 2008 and September 8, 2008) and delineated a continuous magnetite mineralization along the strike of 500m with an overall width of up to 250m.
The winter program 2009 totalled 5,329.5 metres and included both step out drilling to expand resources at flanks, and infill drilling with 50m line spacing within the main magnetite zone to improve the continuity of mineralization as well as understanding of geology and structure.
During the 1st quarter 2009, the Company completed the first NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate confirming the presence of a substantial tonnage of surface mineable magnetite at Pellivuoma (refer to the press release dated April 29, 2009). The Pellivuoma mineral resources have been defined primarily by diamond core drilling. Drilling was conducted on a grid of 50 m x 100 m to 100 m x 100 m. A total of 49 holes, totalling 9,644 metres, with 5,095 assayed sections, have been used in estimating the resources.
Geology and Mineralization
The magnetite deposits are located within the Pajala Shear Zone (PSZ) which forms part of the Baltic-Bothnian mega-sheer. The PSZ is a 50 to 100 kilometre-wide system of thrust and reverse faults which were active during the Svecofennian Orogenic events (1.91-1.81 Ga). Magnetite deposits occur within metasedimentary rocks of Paleoproterozoic-age which form part of the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt of Northern Sweden. The meta-sediments consist of quartzites, dolomites, phyllites and schists overlying a greenstone unit.
The PSZ hosts approximately 30 iron ore deposits, some of which contain significant Cu and Au concentrations. The Pellivuoma deposit is located just west of a significant flexure along the westernmost shear zone of the PSZ system.
Pellivuoma is an iron mineralization formed at the contact between older carbonate rocks and intruding granite c. 1800 million years ago. The main iron ore mineral is magnetite. In addition, small amounts of copper and cobalt are bound in sulphide minerals, but these are of minor economic significance.
Pellivuoma Fe ore deposit consists of several, 20 to 100-m-thick, c. 50 degrees to the southwest dipping, meandering ore lenses that are generally conformable with the footwall granite contact. In the plan view the mineralization covers an area of c. 700 x 600 metres. Ore-grade layers (magnetite-rich skarn rocks) are interleaved with non-mineralised clino-actinolite-serpentine skarns in a somewhat irregular manner. The iron mineralization is cut by several, both low-angle and subvertical fault zones that complicate the geological interpretation of the deposit. A low-angle NNW running displacement roughly divides the deposit into a relatively sulphur-rich/shallow zone and a low-sulphur/deep zone.
Metallurgical Test Work
The initial testwork program for the Pellivuoma project was completed at the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), Mineral Processing, in Outokumpu, Finland. The geological work and initial Davis Tube tests identified two distinct zones at Pellivuoma - the "upper" zone of the project that contained higher sulphur content, and the "lower" zone containing less sulphur, which is separated from the upper zone by a thrust fault. Drill core samples were selected to be representative of the ore types present and metallurgical evaluation was undertaken to establish the best process flow-sheet.
Bench scale testing and process development for Pellivuoma was very cost effective using experience and data gained during metallurgical investigations into Northland's Sahavaara, Hannukainen and Tapuli projects. This experience led to the rapid development of a flow-sheet suitable for processing Pellivuoma and enabled the GTK to make a high-grade concentrate (with similar chemical and physical analysis as Tapuli.
Tests showed that Pellivuoma required a flow-sheet similar to but simpler than that developed for Sahavaara and confirmed that an excellent concentrate quality can be achieved using three stage crushing/grinding, a magnetic cobbing stage, magnetic separation and a final stage of flotation to reduce the sulphur to acceptable commercial levels. The concentrates produced from the upper and lower zones of Pellivuoma had a very similar analysis and the only real difference between the two main ore types was the shorter flotation stage required for the run-of-mine feed from the lower zone. It should be noted that based on the evidence to date, the flotation stage for Pellivuoma will be both smaller and consume less reagents when compared with that of Sahavaara.
The table below provides a detailed analysis (from GTK) of the concentrate generated from the bench scale testwork and demonstrates that the Pellivuoma project can provide a high-quality iron ore concentrate suitable as feed to pellet plants supplying both the Blast Furnace (BF) or Direct Reduced (DR) iron markets (refer to the press release dated April 15, 2009).
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Ownership
Northland owns the exploration permits 100%, free of any royalties or back-in rights.
