The following excerpt is from EXPLORATION NEWSLETTER - What's up in Sweden, No 9 May 2000

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Current news on exploration in Sweden. Editor Birger Filén

EXPLORATION NEWS

Boliden Ltd is reported to have found a promising copper mineralization in the municipality of Gällivare. The occurrence is located "some km north of Liikavaara and south of Lina river", in other words rather close to the Aitik mine.
Boliden will in a Joint Venture with Canadian Inmet start an exploration cam paign in the Bergslagen District, where they have applied for large exploration permits comprising more than 1500 km<. US$8.5 million will be spent during a 5-year period.

North Atlantic Natural Resources (NAN) has entered upon an agreement on exploration in two new areas in the Skellefte District. One is a Joint Venture with the Scanex Group in an area close to the recently closed Björkdal gold mine. The other is an option agreement regarding an exploration permit in the north-western Skellefte District, held by Arctic Star PP AB. Consequently NAN plans airborne geophysics both in the western and eastern part of the District.
High PGE prices also attract NAN. The company has applied for a claim option covering the Akanvaara mafic layered complex in northern Finland, where three thin chromium-nickel seams with anomalous PGE-values have been identified.

Redmond Ventures has negotiated a private placement and option agreement with Billiton UK Resources B.V. regarding Redmond's Copper Lake Property in Norrbotten County. Under the terms of the agreement, Billiton would purchase 1,500,000 units at a price of $0.40 per unit for proceeds of CDN$600,000.
The proceeds of the private placement will be used to complete a surface exploration and drill program on the Copper Lake Property.

Equinox Resources Ltd has established an alliance with Billiton Plc to form a jointly owned company, Equinox OreSearch Ltd. The company will be managed by Equinox to explore for Olympic Dam-type iron oxide copper-gold (Cu-Au) deposits.
Equinox will contribute US$0.5 million in cash, 30% of the Norrbotten Project, a generative exploration program using Equinox's expertise and database and will receive 60% of the shares in the company. Billiton may earn a 50% interest in the Norrbotten Project by expending US$2.0 million within 2 years of the option date (31 March 2001).
In 1996, Equinox recognised the strong similarities between the major iron oxide deposits being mined in the Kiruna region and iron oxide Cu-Au deposits elsewhere in the world. Apart from the low copper sulphide content, the major iron oxide deposit at Kirunavaara is geologically comparable to the Ernest Henry deposit and similar in size to Olympic Dam. As there are many sulphide- poor iron oxide alteration systems in the vicinity of Ernest Henry and Olympic Dam, Equinox suggests that Kirunavaara is an example of one of these sulphide-poor systems. Copper sulphide mineralisation is known from a number of the northern Sweden iron oxide occurrences confirming that direct ana ogues exist in the region. Equinox has 19 properties with targets prospective for iron oxide Cu-Au mineralisation.
The Skellefte District is now recognised as a major gold province, with a style of gold mineralisation that Equinox considers being comparable to the structurally controlled deposits of the Tanami region of central Australia. Equinox has 7 tenements in the district, which are prospective for this style of gold mineralisation. A reconnaissance field program has been planned for mid-2000.

At the moment Anglo American's main interest in Sweden is focusing on the Pajala area.

The junior company NEMIR has started a 1 million SEK percussion drilling till- and lithogeochemistry program on the Au-Co-Ni object Hässjaberget, Zn-Cu object Jönsbo and a Zn-Pb-Ag object in Hofors-Torsåker- area.

The Luleå-based juniors Geovista and Triumf Geophysics have merged.

Tricorona AB's board has decided to postpo ne a planned new share issue to a date after the summer.

MINING NEWS

At Boliden Ltd's Maurliden complex sulphide ore body, stripping of overburden is ongoing.

The environmental permits concerning mining at Scanmining's Blaiken will be ruled in court in June. A positive rule will result in mining in mid 2001. According to a final test the gold and zinc-ores are easy to treat and the concentrates are of high quality.

On the 1st of May NAN was granted Mining Consession for the Storliden deposit. Subsequently Malå Lapp Village has appealed against the desicion. No reason for the appeal was however given. The Government will handle the case. The environmental permits are still pending.

Dragon Mining most likely will apply for a mining concession later on this year for their Svartliden gold deposit 53 km west-north west of Lycksele, south-west of the Skellefte District. 2.5 million tonnes with 5.4 g/t gold has been identified.

Ethical rules for mining- and exploration companies working in Sweden will be introduced by The Swedish Mining Association.

DIAMOND EXPLORATION

During the 1999 year Mineral Hunt contest a lot of alkaline carbonaritic boulders from an area northwest, north and northeast of Alnön were registered. At least two boulder fans emanate from airmag anomalies below lakes. Four "bulls eye" targets have been tested through drilling by Poplar Resources' subsi diary North Star Diamonds AS. The same kind of strange looking rocks as in the boulder fans were discovered.

Alcastone Diamond Exploration AB will start an exploration program in northern Sweden comprising the collection and processing of 500 samples.

NEWS FROM THE OFFICE

Bosse Gustafsson will be back from his one year leave June 12. Mattias Johansson, who filled Bosse's post, will start as a free geoconsultant.

A short course on the "use of SGU's digital data for exploration purposes" will be held at the Head office in Uppsala on the 17th of October and at the Mineral Resources Information Office in Malå on the 19th. The course will focus on processing digital data using different GIS-applicarions. Please contact Lars Kristian Stølen, +46-18-179139, lars.kristian.stolen@sgu.se for further information and application form. Closing date for entries 15th September.

NEW PUBLICATIONS

Delin, H. (Ed.), 2000: Regional berggrunds geologisk undersökning. Sammanfattning av pågående undersökningar 1999. (Regional bedrock mapping. Summary of ongoing surveys 1999. With English introduction) Sveriges geologiska undersökning Rappotrer och meddelanden nr 102.

Bedrock maps 1:50 000

Af 212 2D Tomelilla NV
Ai ll4 23IMalåNV
Ai ll5 23IMalåNO
Ai 116 23IMalåSV
Ai ll7 23IMalåSO
Ai 130 30J Rensjön NV
Ai 131 3OJRensjönNO
Ai 132 30J Rensjön SV
Ai 133 30J Rensjön SO

Geochemistry

Geokemiska kartan. Markgeokemi. Metallet i morän delar av Västerbotten, Västergötland, Halland och Skåne. (Geochemical map. Ground geochemistry. Metals in till, parts of Västerbotten, Västergötland, Halland and Scania Counties. With english summary) Scale 1:1 million. SGU Gk 2.

Bedrock database, northern Norrbotten

A regional bedrock database from a project in the northern part of Norrbotten Conty is now available. The information is based on compilation, revision and generalisation of 1:50 000 bedrock maps from 1967 to 1999, and other old and new information. A suitable scale of presentation is 1:250 000. The database contains information about distribution of rock types, strarigraphy, outcrops (polygons and points), structures, dykes etc.
At the present, data can be delivered in MapInfo format. For further information, please contact Stefan Bergman.
Purchasing information can be given by Customer service: kundsservice@sgu.se

MEETINGS

Mineral 2000 August 7-13, 2000, Gellivare.
A mineral fair on the top of Europe. The meeting will include: fair, symposiums, excursions and arrangements.
Mineral 2000 is divided into two parts and is intended for both professionals and the public.
Information: Mineral 2000, Box 840, 982 28 Gellivare. http://wwxv.mineral2000.gellivare.se

2nd annual GEODE-Fennoscandian shield field meeting:
Paleoproterozoic and Archaean greenstone belts and VMS districts in the Fennoscandian
Aug. 28th to Sept. 1st , 2000
Information: per. weihed@sgu.se or http://wwww.gl.rhbnc.ac.uk/geode/

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 we can offer you.

© 1999 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.