“At the moment, the Finnish end of Nortec’s property spectrum is garnishing the most excitement, particularly The Seinajoki Gold Project. Nortec President and Director Ian Laurent explains what it is about Seinajoki that’s got them all giddy down at camp Nortec. “We’ve entered into an option agreement to acquire 100% interest in a gold project in Western Finland which is our newest and most exciting project, The Seinajoki Project. We’re very giddy about this because it’s an under explored and virtually untouched gold district in Finland. Only the Geological Survey of Finland have worked on it… They have extraordinary anomalies, they’ve even drilled a few holes with some very high grade intercepts but never with an aim of delineating any resources so I’m very excited about this.””
Laurent’s excitement stems from a geological background with seventeen years of experience in mineral exploration and resource development on four continents. 4 of those 17 years were spent as Project Geologist on the Svartliden Gold Mine in Northern Sweden. Svartliden is a million oz gold project that sits on the north-northwest trending Gold Line, and Nortecs Seinajoki Gold Project is on the Finnish side of that line.
The Seinäjoki Gold Project
The Seinäjoki Project is located in western Finland, 5km south of the town of Seinäjoki. Nortec signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Akkerman Exploration B.V. for the right to earn an undivided 100% interest in the Property. Akkerman holds 100% legal right to title and interest in 12 claim reservations covering 10,000 hectares.
Seinajoki is a largely under explored area. Local prospectors discovered gold and antimony mineralization by locating mineralized boulders assaying as high as 500 grams/tonne gold and another boulder with 70 kilograms of native antimony and stibnite. Preliminary follow-up work by the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) located several targets, including Kalliosalo, Sikakangas, Tulisilma, Tervasmaki, Marttalaniemi, and Ylijoki.
The follow-up work mainly consisted of till-geochemical surveys, trenching and shallow diamond drilling. The shallow diamond drilling mostly concentrated on areas with outcrops and some of the best intersections from drilling returned 1 metre grading 53 g/t gold and 1 metre at 28.3 g/t gold. Some of the boulders sampled at Marttalaniemi by a local prospector returned values as high as 117 g/t gold. One of the shallow holes drilled by GTK (28 metres) at Marrtalaniemi returned 82.2 g/t gold across 0.6 metres.
“We want to drill Seinajoki because it’s a gold project in a very under explored and under evaluated district and we’re excited to put some holes into it, come up with a discovery hole and identify – initially if we can – a half million oz target area. I think there’s definitely potential for 3 or 4 of those half million oz prospects around there… For the moment we wish to drill Seinajoki with the funds we do have and make the discovery, show the market that we’re on top of something that could be anything… We like it a lot,” Laurent affirms.
So far, initial work programs on the Seinajoki claim areas have included verification and evaluation of all geophysical and geochemical data (including diamond drilling) carried out by GTK. Reconnaissance rock chip sampling by Nortec, which returned 69.8g/t gold and 21.1g/t gold hosted in quartz veins within altered metavolcanic rocks (mica gneiss). Nortec hopes to begin drilling on Seinajoki in May.
The LK (Läntinen Koillismaa) Project
Also active in Finland is Nortecs LK Project. The LK (Läntinen Koillismaa) Project is located 18 km south of the city of Posio and 35 km west of Kuusamo city in north-eastern Finland. The project is comprised of the Kaukua area, acquired in 2007-2008 from Akkerman Exploration, as well as the Haukiaho area, acquired in 2009 from Vulcan Resources.
The total claims of the LK Project span 3,200 hectares, and is 100% owned by Nortec Minerals Oy, a 100% owned Finnish subsidiary of Nortec Minerals Corp. As of 2010, four phases of drilling programs have been completed for a total of 10,300 metres.
Laurent explains exactly what’s going on at LK. “We’re completing a metallurgical test work study on the LK project which we commissioned late last year. We’re very excited about that too because the results have shown that just from a simple float concentrate we have over 16% of copper nickel concentrate, and 60 grams/tonne palladium platinum and gold so its very exciting. But we’ve also carried on with the hydro med test work to see if added recoveries would increase the concentrated grade and increase the product and we hope to have some news about that soon and release that.”
These results mean a lot to Nortec as they validate the reasons for entering into agreements initially with Akkerman and Vulcan. Also, in comparison to other PGE + Au and Ni-Cu massive sulphide deposits, the concentrate from the LK Project has a much higher ratio of precious and base metals, producing a very high unit value per tonne of concentrate. This favourably impacts infrastructure and transportation costs.
Another boost of confidence in the property and its geographical potential is instilled by First Quantum, a growing mining and metals company, who have claimed along strike from LK and intend to put their nickel-copper-cobalt property in northern Finland into production next year.
Tammela and Kaatiala
Right now, Seinajoki and LK are the projects generating the most excitement and news flow for Nortec. Bear in mind though, that this is not a family of two, but a family of 6. Also in Finland, lie The Tammela and Kaatiala Projects.
Tammela is a 2,300 hectare lithium property covering the Kietyönmäki and Hirvikallio target zones and 100% owned by Nortec. Regarding activity on Tammela, complete relogging and core photography of the GTK core was carried out with select sampling of core from one drillhole returning 9m @ 1.03% Lithium. Mineralisation hosting was detected in a 400m striking spodumene-bearing pegmatite dyke with a width of 18m and a depth of 100m.
The Kaatiala Project is a 900 hectare rare earth property 35km east of Seinajoki. In October 2009, Nortec acquired an option to earn-in 100% for the Kaatiala claim reservation from Akkerman. Although inactive at the moment, initial work programs on the claim areas will include verification and evaluation of all data concerning previous exploration and quarry mining, field work, consisting of geological mapping and prospecting, to define areas for staking of claims and identifying targets for detailed resampling and diamond drilling to determine grades and resources.
Why Finland?
Having the majority of their projects in Finland suits Nortec down to the ground. The company has great respect for the country and, it would seem, the country is quite fond of the company. Or at least of what Nortec is doing for the country.
“We like Finland a lot and we’ve had a lot of support from all sides of the Finnish spectrum, be it the geological survey, the mining department, the local communities… The Finnish government has an active policy of investing in any companies that will put projects into production. We’ve had a lot of support for a proposed infrastructure should any projects come about… and of course the EU as well has a mandate for their member states to acquire their strategic minerals which helps on the side of exploring and getting more foreign investment into the country… Strategic minerals by EU definitions is anything they use a lot of and a lot of that is for green and hi tech industries, as well as just the normal base metal industries, so you’ll see things like lithium, rare earths, phosphates etc… They’re consumed quite heavily in Europe and the EU would like their member states to try and find their own rather than relying on Latin American, Asia or Africa. So that’s one of the promising parts of working in Finland.”
From Labrador to Ecuador
Moving away from the Land of Fin, Nortecs other worldly interests take us from Labrador to Ecuador. Nortec has 51% controlling interest in the 5,500 hectare Tasisuak Lake, nickel-copper-cobalt property, as part of an option agreement with Vulcan Minerals. Although they’ve drilled 4000 meters already, and encountered the following results, Canadian costing ran too high and activity on the property is on hold for now.
- 6 metres of 1.09% Ni, 0.48% Cu, 0.03% Co (Hole 05-LP-54)
- 14 metres of 1.02% Ni, 0.51% Cu, 0.03% Co (Hole 08-AA-60)
- 9 metres of 1.02% Ni, 0.55% Cu, 0.04% Co (Hole 08-LP-55)
- 3 metres of 1.04% Ni, 0.38 Cu, 0.03% Co (Hole 08-LP-56)
- 3 metres of 1.01% Ni, 0.39% Cu, 0.04% Co (Hole 08-AA-62)
One of the most recent progressions at Nortec has been highly promising discussions the company has been having with the government of Ecuador regarding the possibility of being offered one or more of the high quality precious and/or base metal projects belonging to the Ecuadorian government. Meanwhile Nortec still has an option agreement with Doubloon Exploration Corp., a private company based in Vancouver, to acquire 51% interest in the Ganarin Gold-Silver Property in southern Ecuador.
“It was very, very well received and the president himself thanked our director on giving the presentation. He’s hoping that they can come up with something, maybe a proposal, very soon. So we’re quietly excited about that!” Laurent comments.
Nortec Management Lead The Way
Leading the Nortec brigade is Executive Chairman , CEO and Director Mohan Vulimiri. Vulmiri has over 30 years experience in the exploration and delineation of ore deposits and has been involved in the management of numerous junior and established companies.
With Ian Laurent as President and Director, Peter Tegart , accomplished geologist, as Executive Director, Balraj Mann as CFO and Director and a strong board of experienced and seasoned Directors behind him, the future’s looking bright for Vulmiri and Nortec.
Follow their progress at www.nortecminerals.com.
DISCLOSURE: A fee has been paid for the production and distribution of this article and as such should be viewed in the context of advertising.
SOURCE: http://www.midasletter.com/news/100428_Nortec-metals-finnish-first.php
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