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- Talga Resources has announced a maiden JORC mineral resource estimate for its Kiskama copper-cobalt project
- Highlights include 7.7 million tonnes at 0.25 per cent copper, 0.04 per cent cobalt and 0.36 per copper equivalent
- High-level pit design and optimisation program was also completed
- Talga will now seek development partners for the early-stage cobalt opportunity at its north Sweden battery project
Talga Resources has announced a maiden JORC mineral resource estimate for its Kiskama copper-cobalt deposit in Sweden.
High-level pit design and optimisation program were also completed to visualise and plan for any potential development.
Highlights for the maiden resource estimate (MRE) include 7.7 million tonnes at 0.25 per cent copper, 0.04 per cent cobalt and 0.36 per cent copper equivalent.
“The maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate for Kiskama has achieved a solid base from which to lift the project above exploration level,” Managing Director of Talga, Mark Thompson, commented.
“In addition, the timing of its potential further development is right to match the growing need for conflict-free sources of critical minerals, such as cobalt, to make lithium-ion batteries in Europe.”
The Kiskama MRE update was completed by independent geological consultancy, Micon International. Micon utilised a substantial historical drill hole database, Talga’s more recent drill hole database, exploration and metallurgical results.
Kiskama lies 40 kilometres east of Kiruna and is Sweden’s largest cobalt deposit.
Historical drilling, 101 holes for 13,836 metres, tested only 1 kilometre strike of a 7 kilometre cobalt-copper-gold zone. Only 27 per cent of this historic drilling assayed for copper and less than 2 per cent for gold.
The majority of the historical diamond drilling at Kiskama was undertaken and reported by the Swedish Geological Survey (SGU) on behalf of the Nämnden för Statens Gruvegendom.
Drilling first occurred in 1972 on an episodic basis until 1982 and primarily focused on the 1 kilometre long Kiskama deposit in the north. This defined three sulphide lenses up to 40 metres wide and 180 metres deep.
A total of 96 diamond drill holes have been drilled across Kiskama, 91 by the SGU and 5 by Anglo American. Core from the SGU holes is stored at its core storage facility in Malå, Sweden.
In 2014, Talga completed four drill holes using the standard tube, wireline core drilling techniques and a total of 200 samples were collected.
During 2017 Talga appointed Australian company Simulus Laboratories to complete a batch of metallurgical test-work to investigate flotation recovery of copper, cobalt and gold.
Results indicated that high mineral receives of cobalt and copper, 91 per cent and 86 per cent respectively, could be obtained and that the flotation process was relatively simple.
Talga will now seek development partners for the early stage cobalt opportunity at its priority and highly advanced northern Sweden battery project.
“From here, Talga will seek partners to further explore and develop this copper-cobalt project in north Sweden. The potential is to build larger scale on this core estimate with growth-targeted exploration along strike and down dip,” Mark concluded.
