The following excerpt is from EXPLORATION NEWSLETTER - What's up in Sweden, No 10 November 2000

Current news on exploration in Sweden. Editor Birger Filén

EXPLORATION NEWS

Higher production and improved copper and zinc prices helped Boliden Ltd to an operating profit of 65 MSEK in the three months ended Sept. 30. This is to compare with a net loss of 120 MSEK for the same period last year. Nevertheless in the Boliden area one quaffer of the working force has been noticed to leave. It is still not known how the exploration division will be affected.

Tertiary Minerals plc reports that their exploration this summer has put forward a number of projects to the drilling stage. At the same time their prospects increased from 6 to 11 and are now including the Platinum Group Metals (PGM) and high tech metals as tantalum and caesium. Some of their prospects are listed below:
Windfall - Preliminary evaluation of old drill cores identifies continuation of zinc- silver mineralisations, confirms second parallel zone at Sörtärnan and defines additional drill targets.
Kukkola - Ground geophysics confirm and relocate drill targets for PGMs in Kukkola layered mafic complex.
Djuragruvan - Project expanded to include Gruvberget mine where drill intersections of 4.25m at l4% zinc and 7.2m at 9.9% zinc require follow up. Juniper ridge - Geochemical surveys define drill target for gold near Enåsen gold copper mine with values up to 1 89ppb gold in surface till. Airborne geophysical survey commenced over 100 sq.km around the Enstern zinc prospect.

According to ScanMinings financial report for Jan. 1 -Sept. 30, drillings at Svärtträsk have extended the known mineralisation further about 1km towards NE. Many of the drillcores contain commercial contents of zinc.

Advanced interpretation by Lake Resources N.L. of data sets for the whole of Sweden has identified a number of areas with strong indications of potential to host world class lead-zinc and copper-gold sulphide deposits. The company has moved quickly in recent months to establish a high quality tenement portfolio in the mine districts of Norrbotten and Bergslagen. Lake Resources has also signed an exploration joint venture with Zinkgruvan Mining to explore an area in southern Bergslagen. A joint venture partner for the northern Sweden is being sought. The agreements will provide access to major exploration databases and guarantee funding for further exploration and development of mineral properties advanced to a drill-testing stage by Lake Resources.
Equinox Resources Ltd has established an exploration office in Kiruna in northern Sweden and commenced a substantial exploration program. This program will represent a major expansion of the Company's exploration effort in Sweden and include drilling of selected prospects in early-2001. South of the Skellefte District Equinox has 7 tenements covering 237 sq.km that are prospective for structurally controlled gold mineralisations. A recently completed reconnaissance field program confirmed the viability of the Equinox exploration model and located several prospective zones of sulphide enrichment. Equinox considers the 2000 program to be highly encouraging and will conduct a follow up program after winter.

At their website www.lapplandgoldminers.com Lappland Goldminers AB reports considerable gold deposits at Stortjärnhobben and Fäbodliden in an area south of the Skellefte District. The aim of the Company is to invest 4 MSEK in exploration, mainly drilling, at Stortjärnhobben to define an estimated resource with at least 3,4 Mt at 3g/t gold.

Australian Dragon Mining NL merged with the Canadian company Viking Gold Corp. during 1999.
The main Viking asset was the Svartliden Gold Project south of the Skellefte District. Dragon now has a 60% equity in the Svartliden Project, which will be increased to 80% on completion of a bankable feasibility study. Current resource at Svartliden currently is 2.5Mt at a grade of 5.4g/t.

In spite of promising drill results, like 5% Cu, 2g/t Au, 7% Zn, 9% Pb and >lOOg/t Ag, the Swedish Junior exploration company NEMIR has gone into bankruptcy.

MINING NEWS

Boliden Ltd's Maurliden mine in the Skellefte District has during the summer gone into production.

Boliden Ltd and North Atlantic Natural Resources (NAN), in which Boliden and South Atlantic Resources each own 38% interests, have signed a Letter of intent to develop NAN's Storliden zinc-copper deposit, also in the Skellefte District and 8km NE of Malå. Storliden has a resource of 1 .8Mt grading 10.3% zinc and 3.5% copper. Earlier studies examined a mine-mill complex for Storliden, but the proposed operation will feed the Boliden mill. As part of the development agreement, Boliden will finance modifications to the mill while NAN finances development of the deposit. Once the partners have recovered their capital costs, NAN will receive two
thirds of the net smelter return on the Storliden ore and Boliden will get the rest. The two companies are also examining a similar program to bring the smaller Norrliden deposit into production. The Government has rejected the Malå Lapp Village's appeal against mining at Storliden.

ScanMining, which is planning a zinc-gold mine at Ersmarksberget and a zinc mine at Svärtträsk W of the Skellefte District, has postponed the mine start at least half a year. The Management has not yet succeeded to find a project financier.

Dragon Mining's subsidiary Svartliden Guld AB has applied for a Mining Concession for the Svartliden gold deposit. According to the application the Company is annually planning to mine 500 000 tonnes of ore in an open cast operation.

The Government has granted Tricorona AB a Mining Concession for the Billinge kaolin deposit in Scania, southern Sweden. The Company is planning a temporary reduction of both the production and the work force at the Kringelgruvan graphite mine in central Sweden.


DIAMOND EXPLORATION

In 1997-1999 North Star Diamonds (NSD), a part-owned subsidiary of Vancouver-listed Poplar Resources, concentrated its activities to the Archean region of the Norrbotten County, where more than 1200 regional till samples have been collected for indicator mineral studies. A number of positive indicator minerals have been found, including significant Gl0 and G9 pyropes. During 2000 all exploration activities by NSD have been concentrated to a potentially interesting project area located in a previously unexplored region, centred around Viksjö, about 50km north of the town of Sundsvall in east central Sweden. More than 100 potential drill targets have been identified. Four targets were tested close to the Viksjö village and all were confirmed to be separate diatreme pipes. Mineralogical/ petrological analysis of the drillcores from two of the pipes at a certified laboratory in Canada shows that both are highly altered, diatreme breccia rocktypes of a rare melilite/melnoite composition.

Also working in Norrbotten County is Australian Alcaston Mining's subsidiary Alcaston Diamond Exploration AB. The company started regional indicator mineral sampling in August 2000 within their large licence area, which covers more than 1.5 million hectares. Geoforum Scandinavia has transferred its diamond licences in NE Norrbotten to
Alcaston Diamond Expl. "Investing money in diamond prospecting is a risky venture. It takes a long time before you get a return" says Alcaston's Clarke Dudley, who has high hopes for his Norrland project.

The former chief geologist of the State Mining Property Commission PhD Sigvard Ljung has been granted diamond exploration permits on 230 hectares at Rosvik in SE Norrbotten County.

NEWS FROM THE OFFICE

For the first time the Mineral Resources Information Office participated in the Diggers and Dealers in Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Our display was in co-operation with Invest in Sweden Agency (ISA) and some Australian companies working in Sweden; Equinox, Lake Resources and Dragon Mining.

We will as usual attend the PDAC in Toronto on March 11-14, 2001. Welcome to booth #411!

GEORANGE

The Georange programme aims to form a plattform for economic geology and environmental research in Sweden. The project, initiated by Malå community, is now planned as a three-year, EU sponsored project and will be run by a non-profit organisation Georange Ideella Förening". The organisation welcomes all interested parties to become members. As a member you'll have the possibility to initiate, participate and sponsor research projects with focus on Northern Sweden. Membership costs 5000 SEK (5OO$US) a year. For further information please contact Marjet Jäderström by e-mail
marj et.j aderstrom@mala. se.

MINERAL 2000

Mineral 2000 Prospectors Symposium took place in Gällivare, Northern Sweden, focussing on "Exploration in Northern Scandinavia". The conference was attended by Swedish and international mining companies, by local and national government officials, geological surveys and analysts. Magnus Eriksson, Raw Materials Group's managing director delivered a lecture entitled "Boom in Swedish Exploration - Circum global Co-operation with Australian Companies". In his talk Eriksson mentioned that not only Australian companies such as BHP, North, Equinox, Dragon Mining and Lake Resources are involved in Swedish exploration projects, but also international majors such as Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Phelps Dodge. He also pointed out Sweden's major role in exploration and mining in the EU: For production in 1999 Sweden was # I in iron ore, silver and lead, # 2 in copper and zinc and # 3 in gold.

NEW PUBLICATIONS AND MAPS

Exploration opportunities in Norrbotten (Sweden) Part 9, Municipalities of Överkalix and Övertorneå
For further information contact: Kenneth Wågman, Länsstyrelsen i Norrbottens Län (Norrbotten County Board) SE-971 86 Luleå, SWEDEN. Phone +46 920 96 120, Fax+46 920 22 60 67

SGU

Listed below are maps and publications with special emphasis on exploration. In all other cases we kindly refer to the Survey's website www.sgu.se or our Head Office (see below).

Ice-Flow indicators, Central Fennoscandia,
1:100 000. Ov 25.

Bedrock maps 1:50 000
Ai 110, 23K Boliden NV
Ai 111, 23K Boliden NO
Ai 112, 23KBolidenSV
Ai 113, 23K Boliden SO

Economic geology
Ores, industrial minerals and rocks in Södermanland County. (Only in Swedish: Malmer, industriella mineral och bergarter. Serie Rapporter och Meddelanden nr 100.)

Minerals and metals
Statistics of the Swedish Mining Industry 1999. Per. publ. 2000:1

Exhibition and release
Dec 8 the Survey will present the new air borne and ground geophysical data for the year 2000. The data comprise the magnetic field, VLF and gamma-radiation. The area covers the map sheets 27K Nattavaara, 251 Stensund and 25J Moskosel in northern Sweden and in the south Södermanlanc and Kalmar Counties and an area between Linköping and Trollhättan. Gravity and petrophysics cover certain parts all over Sweden. The exhibition will take place at the Survey's Head Office in Uppsala. For more information please contact Sören Byström (+46-18-179367) or Sven Aaro (+46-18-179345).

New product!
On the 8th of December SGU will also release a new digital product 'Exploration Package Northern Norrbotten on CD. The CD contains the newly reviewed bedrock map database, mineral deposit database, interpolated magnetic (200x200m grid) and gravity data (5OOx5OOm), copper geochemistry, and raster images based on these data. In addition to that the CD contains maps showing the coverage of a number of exploration related databases including drill hole location, outcrops, isotope age data, petrophysics, airborne VLF, slingram, radiometry and coverage of ground geophysical surveys. The quality of all data is demonstrated on a sample area where all available information are found as open file. The prize will be around 15,000 SEK ( approx. l,500$US)

Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. You are of course welcome to visit us and have a closer look at the information that we can offer you.

Hope to see you soon

© 2000 Geological Survey of Sweden - Mineral Resources Information Office.

The content of this newsletter is entirely based Upon public information gathered from newspapers, press releases, and web sites on Internet.