Stockholm, 9 August 2023. Northgold AB (Nasdaq First North Growth Market: “NG”, or “Northgold” or the “Company”) announces its first Mineral Resource Estimate (“MRE”) for the 100%-owned Kopsa gold and copper project in Central Finland.
Highlights
- Kopsa MRE totals 16.6 million tonnes (“Mt”) of in-situ resources grading 0.79 grams per tonne (“g/t”) gold (“Au”) and 0.16% copper (“Cu”), for combined grade of 1.03 g/t gold-equivalent (“AuEq”), containing 424,000 ounces (“oz”) Au and 56.8 million pounds (“Mlbs”) Cu, for combined metal of 547,000 oz AuEq (90% in the Measured and Indicated categories).
- Includes a pit-constrained resource, containing over 81% of the in-situ AuEq metal content, confirming a low strip ratio of 1.7.
- Also includes a higher-grade 1Mt starter pit grading 1.40 g/t Au and 0.17% Cu (1.65g/t AuEq), for 45,200 oz Au and 3.8 Mlbs Cu (53,500 oz AuEq), with an ultra-low strip ratio of 0.36, to provide high margin initial cash flow for the project.
- The Kopsa MRE was prepared in accordance with standards set out in 2012 Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources, and Ore Reserves (JORC code).
- Kopsa’s combination of average gold mine grade with low strip ratio places it near the top third of known deposits based on the combination of these two metrics, and should result in reasonably high margins once critical mass of resources are attained.
- The Kopsa MRE’s combined Measured, Indicated, and Inferred gold-equivalent resource ounces exceeds that of the historic 2012 resource estimate by 66%.
- This is an incredibly strong result given that this increase is largely due to the 4,200m drilled by the Company at Kopsa in 2022 (and partly due to a lower cutoff grade), which bodes well for substantial future resource growth with further drilling, including from the additional 2,000m already completed by the Company in 2023, with assays pending.
Mitch Vanderydt, CEO, comments: “Today’s resource estimate marks a significant, de-risking step forward, and snapshot in time, along Kopsa’s path towards commercial gold and copper production. The estimate combines gold and copper assay results from the drilling undertaken at Kopsa last year, with those results we inherited from historic resource drilling. This updated resource estimate greatly increases our confidence in the validity and accuracy of our inherited historic drill hole data, and reaffirms our conviction in Kopsa’s positive resource growth trajectory.”
About the Kopsa mineral resource estimate
The Kopsa 2023 MRE is based on the 4,200m of drilling completed by Northgold in 2022, and also incorporates 14,300m of historic drilling (that was also used in the historic 2012 and 2013 resource estimates). The MRE was prepared by Pekka Lovén and Markku Meriläinen (who also prepared the historic 2012 estimate), under the supervision of Hannu Makkonen, PhD, who is an Independent Qualified Person in compliance with JORC code. A Technical Report supporting the MRE is also being prepared in accordance with JORC code, and will become available on the Company’s website at www.northgoldab.com, during the fourth quarter of 2023. The MRE excludes significant additional exploration potential at depth, some of which was already drilled with another 2,000m completed in 2023, with assays pending for release in the coming weeks to months, and with results to be included in the next interim resource update anticipated for release in the first half of 2024 (pending the assay results).
A summary of the Kopsa MRE is shown in Table 1, and is illustrated visually in Figures 1 through 4. Figures 1 and 2 show the resource block model of the in-situ resource and the unoptimized, pit-constrained resource respectively.
Figures 3 and 4 highlight the previous and updated pit outlines at Kopsa, illustrating the recent growth extension and future growth potential in the S-SW direction, particularly at depth. The growth potential further to the S-SW has been tested by holes NGKOP23032 and NGKOP23034 (shown as dashed lines in Figure 4) that were drilled recently and with results pending. The historic 2012 and (unverified) 2013 resource estimates are summarized in Table 2.
Figure 5 compares the grade and strip ratio of select global open pit project peers to the pit-constrained portion of the Kopsa MRE, highlighting Kopsa’s relatively high ranking near the top third of project peers in terms of both strip ratio, and combination of strip ratio and grade.
Finally, Figure 6 compares the Kopsa MRE to that of Finland’s largest gold deposits, highlighting the minimal amount of drilling completed at Kopsa thus far relative to Finnish peer gold projects, resulting in overall mineral resources of 30 oz AuEq per m drilled….
Read More: Northgold announces mineral resource estimate for flagship Kopsa project