Battery metals development company Kuniko (ASX:KNI) reports it has established 2 new copper projects with exploration licences granted in the Trøndelag county in Norway.
The company says these new projects include the Vågå Copper Project which consists of 33 exploration licences across a land holding of 321.6km-square, and the Gullklumpan Copper Project consisting of 9 exploration licences across an area of 73km-square.
This acquisition, along with the extensions of the Undal-Nyberget Copper Project licences, makes Kuniko one of the major exploration players in the Trøndelag country with grounds staked in the Støren-Løkken and Kvinke-Singsås belts.
Kuniko CEO Antony Beckmand says: “We are pleased to strengthen Kuniko’s position, portfolio and project pipeline with the addition of these 2 exciting projects in a district prolific for copper mineralisation and historic mining activity.
These acquisitions have been undertaken with careful consideration of the regional geology and prospectivity highlighted by already available data, while complementing the suite of battery minerals focused projects Kuniko is currently developing in Europe, for Europe.”
“These acquisitions have been undertaken with careful consideration of the regional geology and prospectivity highlighted by already available data”
Kuniko reports a ‘wealth’ of historical exploration data is available for Trøndelag country, which was recently enhanced with the addition of modern regional datasets prepared by the Norwegian Geological Survey (NGU). With the advances in modern exploration techniques, technology and geological understanding, the company aims to unlock the exploration upside potential of this district.
The Vågå Copper Project consists of 33 exploration licence blocks laid out across the Vågåmo Ophiolite sequence surrounding the towns of Otta and Vågåmo in Central Norway.
The project is located 84km to the south of the Nyberget exploration licence extension, and the company reports it has good logistical access through the main north to south E6 highway as well as the Norwegian national rail network.
This area hosts a total of 9 historical copper mineral occurrences including the Åsoren, Sel and Rapham copper mines which operated in the 17th and 18th centuries over a similar period to the historic Nyberget mine further north.
Kuniko considers the geological setting of Vågå to be similar to the surrounding Løkken deposit, which the company notes is the largest known copper deposit in the Trøndelag region.
The company reports it intends to use modern exploration techniques to define ‘high’ confidence drill targets on an identified copper trend and in other prospective areas across the exploration licences. Planned exploration activities includes loop electromagnetic geophysics and a reconnaissance soil sampling program to validate historical geochemical and geophysical anomalies.
Kuniko believes there is ‘significant’ potential for identifying ‘high-grade’ copper deposits across Vågå, securing another ‘high-quality’ district scale position for the company in the region.
The company reports the metallogenic belts of Trøndelag stretch for over 360km from Dovrefjell in the south to Snåsa in the northeast, and there has been limited exploration despite apparent geological continuity where these belts extend into the remote mountain areas between Meråker and Snåsa.
As recently as 2004, the NGU discovered outcropping nickel-copper-cobalt mineralisation that had not been previously identified at Brattbakken which highlights the potential for new discoveries in this area.
In 2021, the NGU published a regional helicopter geophysics survey over the Verdal-Snåsa region providing explorers with a major new dataset. Kuniko’s team has assessed the available data, selecting the best and most practical geophysical anomalies.
The staking of the Gullklumpan Project has given Kuniko a true ‘first-mover’ advantage, securing important ground in a ‘highly prospective geological setting.
The main target on the licence is the Gullklumpan anomaly, which is a 3km long feature marked by a strong coincidental magnetic and conductivity anomaly that lies in the metavolcanic sequence of the Fundsjø Group.
Kuniko plans to undertake reconnaissance mapping and outcrop sampling at ‘significant’ targets across the project area during Q3 2023, with the objective of determining if the bedrock sources of these anomalies could be related to VMS mineralisation.
This fieldwork will form the basis for planning additional exploration activities.
Kuniko is a battery metals company focused on the development of copper, nickel and cobalt projects in Scandinavia. Its projects include the Skuterud, Ringerike and Undal-Nyberget projects in Norway.
Images: Kuniko Ltd
