Norge Mining plc, an Anglo-Norwegian mineral exploration company focused on the Bjerkreim Exploration Project in southwest Norway, has announced the publication of a mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the Storeknuten Deposit in the Høyland Exploration Area. The data confirms Storeknuten as the company’s second world-class discovery in the Bjerkreim Exploration Project.
The Storeknuten Mineral Resource covers an area of about 400 000 m2, which represents approximately 15% of the Høyland Exploration Area.
Publication of the Storeknuten MRE follows publication in February this year of the maiden MRE at Øygrei, a world-class deposit of 1.55 billion t which is currently being extended and upgraded.
Highlights
Maiden MRE reported for Storeknuten of 240 million t, containing mean grades of 2.36% phosphorus pentoxide, 4.71% titanium dioxide and 0.07% vanadium pentoxide.
Storeknuten is the company’s second world-class resource of EU critical raw materials, defined as materials of strategic importance for the European economy that the EU currently imports.
The Mineral Resource Estimate at Storeknuten was prepared according to the JORC2 reporting standard by SRK Exploration Services Ltd (SRK), part of the SRK Group, which is an independent international mining, exploration and environmental consultant.
The higher phosphate grade of this deposit opens up potential opportunities for alternative mining and processing scenarios.
Exploration work at Storeknuten is ongoing firstly to extend the resource and then in due course to improve confidence in the estimate with the aim of upgrading a portion of the resource to the Indicated category.
John Vergopoulos, CEO of Norge Mining, said: “This MRE confirms Storeknuten as our second world-class deposit, further highlighting the potential of the Bjerkreim Exploration Project as a whole. In addition to 240 million t of inferred mineral resource at Storeknuten, SRK has also reported a very substantial Exploration Target of between 1.4 and 2 billion t.
“Given the constraints of COVID-19 on exploration work at Storeknuten during the past year, I am particularly pleased by this initial MRE.
“Together with Øygrei, whose world-class status was established earlier this year, we now have a total MRE at Bjerkreim of 1.79 billion t and an Exploration Target of between 2.4 and 4 billion t, all containing vanadium, titanium and phosphate.
“These three minerals are on the EU’s list of critical raw materials, giving Norway a major opportunity to play a pivotal strategic role in the future supply of these materials.
“Exploration work is ongoing to upgrade and extend the resource at both Storeknuten and Øygrei. We also continue to drill in other areas and expect to announce further data in the coming months.”
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