The following excerpt is from EXPLORATION NEWSLETTER - What's up in Sweden, No 22 December 2006

Current news on exploration in Sweden. Editor Birger Filén

EXPLORATION NEWS

In a press release of June 2, 2006 Lappland Goldminers AB announces that the company has reached an agreement with Northern Lion Gold Corp, Canada, to sell a 100% interest in the Nynäsberget gold prospect. This prospect is located in the Ragunda municipality in Jämtland County. Northern Lion Gold Corp owns 100% of the Haveri gold project, a former gold producer in southern Finland. The company now holds seven exploration permits (for copper-lead-zinc and silver) in the historically prolific Bergslagen mineral district in south central Sweden.
Lappland Goldminers has carried out a surface rock and till sampling program at Tjålmträsk, located on the “Gold Line”. The drill cut sampling gave some positive results. In a press release of September 15 the company announces that it has identified zinc, lead, silver, as well as gold mineralization at Gubbträsk, also located on the “Gold Line” within an area that was previously unexplored. The company has since the beginning of August conducted core drilling to investigate deeper parts of the gold mineralization at Fäboliden. The results are very positive and indicate that the mineralized zone continues at depth with similar grades and widths as in the planned open pit.

Lundin Mining is focused on in-mine and near-mine exploration at Zinkgruvan and Storliden mines in addition to greenfield exploration in the Skellefte, Bergslagen, and Norrbotten mining districts. Advanced projects currently include the Copperstone-Eva copper-zinc project, the Lappvattnet nickel project and the Norrbotten copper-gold joint venture (Anglo-American/Rio Tinto) project. An increasing emphasis in Sweden, however, will be on exploration for zinc.

September 7, 2006 Mawson Resources Ltd announced results from a four hole, 398 m, reverse circulation “RC”, drill program completed at the Vargbäcken gold project. Three holes intersected broad intervals of gold mineralization, whereas the fourth was abandoned prior to reaching the ore zone. The RC drill program aimed to test for additional gold mineralization within the mineralized envelope, using the recently completed 3D geological model to predict mineralized zones. These results were not taken into account during the recent independent resource estimate released on 16 August 2006, which utilized a 0.6 g/t cut-off grade. The indicated resource was 1.2 million tonnes for 1.44 g/t gold (56 700 ounces) and inferred resource was 0.9 million tonnes for 1.68 g/t gold (48 120 ounces).
Mawson has been granted permission to drill the Tåsjö and Kläppibäcken uranium projects in Sweden. The summer field program at Kläppibäcken consisted of geological mapping, an 82 line km ground magnetic survey,
an Alpha Track radon cup detector survey over an area of 2.0 × 1.4 km and processing of airborne radiometric data. At Tåsjö, ground scintillometer surveying over 1.7 km by 1.6 km has defined a 1.1 km by 0.8 km surface radiometric anomaly at the Kronotorpet prospect. A 20-hole diamond drill program has also been planned.
On November 1, 2006 Mawson presented results from a 659 line km airborne electromagnetic (“EM”) survey, flown recently at Storbodsund nickel-copper-cobalt project in northern Sweden. The Company has granted ASX-listed Independence Group NL the right to earn up to a 70% interest in the project
by funding work program expenditures. The survey was flown at a 100 m line spacing over the entire project area to detect bedrock conductors that potentially represent nickelcopper sulphide mineralization. A total of 16 conductive responses were evident in the survey data. Two of these conductors correspond with zones of known mineralization and confirmed the effectiveness of the survey.

In October 2006 Northland Resources Inc announced that the company’s shares are trading on the SMB list of the Oslo Stock Exchange. The company aims to establish itself as a mining company with iron, copper and gold production on the doorstep of the major industrial manufacturing regions of Europe. The company’s key projects in Sweden are:

• The Stora Sahavaara iron-copper project in northern Sweden. Northland published the first NI43-101 compliant resource for Stora Sahavaara in Q2 2006. Drilling of large diameter core samples for metallurgical test work is currently underway and Northland has contracted Corus Consulting to plan and supervise the test work.

• The Barsele gold project in north central Sweden. Northland has been steadily expanding the gold resource at Barsele and published its most recent update in March 2006. A drill rig is currently on site at Barsele. The company hopes through the current drilling to expand the resources to approximately 20–22 Mt of ore grading between 1.5 to 1.7 g/t gold.

Reverse circulation drilling commenced at Dragon Mining’s Svartliden mine at the end of the third quarter. The drillings were focussed on the immediate eastern strike extensions of the gold deposit. A total of 650 m was completed. The drillings returned some encouraging initial results including 2 m @ 2.79 g/t Au from 11 m and 8 m @ 2.53 g/t Au from 37 m including 1 m @ 9–47 g/t Au from 40 m, 50 m beyond the previously known limit of gold mineralization. An application for a new exploration permit covering an area of 2 567 hectares was lodged during the quarter. It encompasses the eastern strike of the host geological sequence from Svartliden.

Beowulf Mining’s Grundträsk Project is located in the Skellefte mining district. A goldbearing structure over a strike length of 750 m and up to 27 m width has been established through diamond drilling and is open at both ends and at depth. The gold is associated with chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite in quartz veins and stockworks in altered Precambrian basic volcanic rocks. Five structures have been located
by I.P. and basal till geochemistry. The company has been granted the right to drill at Ruoutevare (Fe-Ti) NW of Kvikkjokk. The diamond drill rig must be transported to the drilling site by helicopter.

Research for new silver projects led Tumi Resources Ltd to the Bergslagen District in south-central Sweden where Tumi has already made significant acquisitions, including the historic Sala silver mine, making the company a major claim holder in the district. Total land held is 12 375 hectares.

September 20, 2006 Gold Ore Resources Ltd reported the assay results from the initial 34 holes of the Phase 1 underground drill program at the Björkdal Gold Mine in Sweden. Gold Ore has an option to purchase 100% of the project from MinMet plc of Dublin, Ireland. The Phase 1 program includes excavation of 900 metres of tunnels and minimum 8 000 metres of underground diamond drilling. Assay results confirm the persistence of significant gold mineralization to the north of the open pit and that the majority of the gold is contained within vein sets. High-grade gold values are associated with near vertical quartz veins. Gold grades up to 37.96 g/t have been encountered. November 1, 2006 the company announces that it continues to make significant progress on the Phase 1 program at Björkdal.

MINING NEWS

October 31, 2006 Boliden announces that the company will invest a total of SEK 5.2 billion in the Aitik mine between 2007 and 2011. The investments include a new concentrator, facilities for crushers and inward freight, along with other infrastructure. A decision was also taken to invest in ore conveyor
belts between the crusher stations and the concentrator. Construction of the new concentrator is scheduled for completion at the end of 2009, with production scheduled to start in 2010. The capacity will initially be 33 Mt, and gradually reaching full production of 36 Mt by 2014. Aitik will be able to produce at full capacity (18 Mt) during the investment phase (2007–2010). The investment will yield
a substantial increase in ore reserve from approximately 200 Mt to just over 600 Mt. Almost 60% of Aitik’s total mineral reserve can now be mined, thereby extending the mine’s lifespan until at least 2025. Except for an increased production of copper, gold and silver a new production of molybdenum will start.

During the June quarter 83 291 tonnes of ore at a head grade of 5.90 g/t Au was milled in Dragon Mining’s Svartliden mine producing 14 744 ounces of gold. During the September quarter: 88 045 tonnes of ore, head grade 4.80 g/t Au, gold production 11 960 ounces. An application has been lodged with the County Administration Board to be able to increase the plant throughput in the twelve months commencing March 1, 2007 to 440 000 tpa.

Dannemora Mineral AB will reopen the Dannemora iron ore mine. There are still 24 Mt of iron ore left. The mine was closed down in 1992 due to low iron prices. Preliminary plans are to mine 1.5 Mt/year.

ScanMining’s original plan was to open the Svärtträsk zinc-lead mine in the summer 2007. Due to the high zinc prices and to the good technical quality of the Svärtträsk ore the first blast happened already November 2, 2006.

AWARDS

Edward F. Posey, North Atlantic Natural Resources/Lundin Mining has received the first Nordic Exploration Award
• for taking Storliden from a geological discovery into production in unprecedented short time,
• for having fruitfully combined international experiences of exploration works with local Swedish traditions, and
• for having been the driving force behind the introduction of new geological reporting
standards in the Nordic countries. The Nordic Exploration Award is sponsored
by Raw Materials Group.

Hope to see you soon!
© 2006 Geological Survey of Sweden

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