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where automobile manufacturing is big and In Sweden, Bayrock Resources Ltd is soon as we get funding in the bank.
needs tungsten…what’s driving permit- seeking to complete a $12 million IPO to list “We’ve got more approvals in the train
ting is very different from perhaps what the on the ASX and fund exploration for nickel, and the approvals process for drilling typi-
country’s requirements are. copper, cobalt and palladium in the coun- cally takes around six weeks if there’s no
“One thing I know ERMA would like to do try’s north. complications. We’ll be drilling some other
is figure out a way to allow approvals of cer- Bayrock managing director Ian Pringle targets; we’ve got some really nice shallow
tain projects to go through in a more strate- said Sweden was a no-brainer to explore as targets at Vuostok with some really good
gic position. They could pass projects they glacial cover has locked away prospective hits around 10-20m undercover. There’s a
deem as critical.” geology for decades. light shallow rig there we can mobilise pretty
Rafaella is currently chasing permitting “Sweden has undeveloped nickel-cobalt quickly.”
for the open pit at its Santa Comba tung- deposits,” he told Paydirt. “It’s somewhere Pringle will also practice what he preach-
sten-tin project in Spain following a positive you can develop a deposit relatively quickly, es with plans to use Scandinavian-made
PFS released in mid-June. electric-powered drill equip-
On just the open pit alone, the ment which will contain the
PFS outlined a pre-tax NPV of very metals he’s exploring for.
$94.8 million and IRR of 32.6% And just like Turner, Pringle
with payback 2.3 years after echoes the same sentiment
commissioning. that Europe’s inhouse invest-
Its proven and probable ore ments into procuring and pro-
reserves are currently estimated ducing battery metals will go a
at 7.48mt @ 0.15% tungsten for long way in fostering the mining
12,374t of contained tungsten. industry into the future.
Santa Comba already came Pringle is particularly keen to
with a permit for underground see product from Lainejaur find
works when Rafaella acquired its way to gigafactories – facili-
the project, but Turner said an in- ties that produce EVs from raw
tegrated approach will be the key material to product in one loca-
to unlocking success. tion – with the helping of local
“What we need to take this green energy like hydroelec-
mine forward is an integrated tricity and nuclear.
mine; underground and open “[The EU] have dozens of
pit,” he said. “The open pit re- gigafactories planned, they’ll
source is potentially very large. The Vuostok target provides potential exploration upside for Bayrock to be needing nickel and cobalt in
All the lower grades would be a complement the existing resource at its flagship Lainejaur project the next few decades,” he said.
larger bulk mining operation and “Hopefully we’ll have some
then you’ve got the underground high-grade an area where there hasn’t been a lot of ex- things in the production stream for them.
selective mining that would complement the ploration and where nickel and cobalt have Sweden also produces pretty much all of its
feed. been particularly overlooked. electricity from hydroelectricity and nuclear.
“Our focus has very much been on ad- “We’re currently getting approvals in place It’s very low carbon and we’ll be looking at
vancing the open pit to get to a point where for an airborne SkyTEM survey. We want to some of the Swedish and Scandinavian
we can move the overall development for- fly as many areas as we can of our ground developments in electrifying mining equip-
ward in an integrated way.” with that system to provide some really good ment.
Meanwhile in Europe’s north, the Nordic geophysical information. “We’re talking to several, large European
regions have come under increased interest “[Because of the cover] there’s not a lot of battery manufacturers that are planning gi-
from Australian explorers to secure battery outcrop and it’s one of the reasons prospec- gafactories. We are getting a lot of interest
minerals. tors in the past haven’t found these things, and gigafactories take a number of years
In July, Finnish explorer Nordic Nickel they didn’t have systems like SKYTEM to build. There will be factories coming on-
Ltd released a maiden 133.6mt @ 0.21% available to them at the time.” stream in the next 3-4 years and they’ll be
resource for its Pulju project just over one The company’s flagship Lainejaur project looking to get their nickel and cobalt within
month after listing. in the Skelleftea mining district already has the EU.
Nordic managing director Todd Ross said a JORC-compliant resource of 460,000 @ “We’ll bring a competitive advantage to
there was still significant upside to be seen 2.2% nickel, 0.7% copper, 0.15% cobalt, producing something in house. A lot of nick-
at the project. 0.68 g/t palladium, 0.2 g/t platinum and 0.65 el is produced out of Russia. The European
“Gaining access to the high quality histori- g/t gold. trend continues to cut imports from Russia
cal drill core at Hotinvaara from Outokumpu Pringle, who previously explored for co- so that supply will be affected.
has not only confirmed the extensive dis- balt near Broken Hill in New South Wales “We’ve got everything we need; we’ve
seminated nickel sulphide mineralisation under Broken Hill Prospecting (today called got smelters and refineries all around the
and the scale of the Pulju nickel system, American Rare Earths Ltd), is eager to Nordic coast within a very close distance to
but it has also highlighted the potential to spend the majority of the IPO money “in the where we are.”
discover bonanza grade massive sulphides ground”.
at depth which is the focus of our upcom- “We’ve got drilling approvals to drill test – Fraser Palamara
ing drill programme,” he said in a market the depth extent of Lainejaur,” he said. “We
release. can push the button on that very quickly as

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