Norway revealing its copper potential for Kingsrose

Click to View: Norway revealing its copper potential for Kingsrose, BHP - Mining.com.au

Source: mining.com.au

Author: Angela East

Kingsrose Mining (ASX:KRM) and partner BHP (ASX:BHP) have collected rock chips from the Finnmark Project in Norway that have returned copper grading up to nearly 30% from polymetallic veins.

A 5,067 line kilometre airborne gravity gradiometry survey was completed last year along with 554 soil samples and 208 rock chip samples.

“High-grade” copper in polymetallic copper-gold-platinum group elements sulphide veins was discovered in the Porsanger and Virdnechokka areas.

Rock chips taken from Porsanger returned grades of up to 29.7% copper, 1.1 grams per tonne gold, 53g/t silver, 0.54g/t palladium and 0.02g/t platinum.

Meanwhile, samples taken from Virdnechokka returned grades of up to 4.4% copper, 1.8g/t gold, 0.5g/t palladium and 0.06g/t platinum.

This exploration was part of one of the largest scale generative exploration programs in Europe, under alliances funded by BHP – a partnership born out of the BHP Xplor program.

Kingsrose, which has a market capitalisation of $25.6 million, was the first listed company to secure a partnership as a direct result of BHP Xplor.

BHP and Kingsrose signed two exploration alliance agreements, under which BHP is funding regional exploration in Norway and Finland.

This has enabled Kingsrose to apply mineral systems analysis of the mineral belts to identify the most prospective areas for discovery of polymetallic copper-nickel-PGE massive sulphides.

Kingsrose Managing Director Fabian Baker says systematic exploration using advanced geophysical and geochemical techniques is already returning highly encouraging results.

“With an equally strong and dedicated approach to social and environmental values, we believe the long-term prospects for discovery in these underexplored regions on Europe’s doorstep are high,” he says.

At Finnmark, BHP is exploring 2,736km² of ground, including the Porsanger Project, in the Karasjok and Kautokeino Greenstone Belts — an extension of the belt hosting the Kevitsa and Sakatti nickel–copper-PGM projects.

In central Finland, Kingsrose and BHP are assessing multiple targets generated in an under-explored nickel-copper belt with several past-producing mines.

Kingsrose has been granted four exploration reservations at the Central Finland Project in the Kotalahti
Nickel Belt, a 400km-long greenstone belt which hosts the past-producing Hitura, Kotalahti and
Enonkoski nickel mines.

Nearly 5,000 line kilometres of drone and ground magnetic surveys were completed in the Haapajarvi reservation, along with 795 soil samples and 87 rock chip samples at Haapajarvi and Suonenjoki.

This led to the discovery of zones of outcropping mineralisation at the Rehula target, which yielded results of 0.46% copper, 110 parts per million cobalt and 0.03g/t palladium.

Kingsrose continues to work with the local communities and complete desktop cultural heritage, water and biodiversity studies. Age dating, geochemistry and physical property data collection of known intrusions is also planned to identify prospective camps of intrusions within the alliance area of interest.