Vedanta to exclude base metals business from sweeping demerger
The group said it will consider the base metals business demerger at a later stage.
A recent resource estimate released for the Hautalampi cobalt-nickel-copper project in Finland shows that the total tonnage in the measured, indicated and inferred resource categories increased approximately 100%, while contained metal approximately 50% in the mine lease area.
Located near the eastern town of Outokumpu, Huatalampi is owned by private Finnish company FinnCobalt, which has signed a farm-in agreement with Sweden’s Eurobattery Minerals AB. As part of the deal, the latter has agreed to finance the development of the project and subsequently earns the right to purchase all FinnCobalt Oy shares.
“We are very pleased with the outcome of this now completed JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate of the Hautalampi project,” Roberto García, CEO of Eurobattery Minerals, said in a media statement. “Compared to earlier, historical resource estimates from the area, we can observe that the total resource tonnage has doubled and contained metal tonnes increased some 50%.”
Located near the eastern town of Outokumpu, Huatalampi is owned by private Finnish company FinnCobalt, which has signed a farm-in agreement with Sweden’s Eurobattery Minerals AB
This maiden mineral resources estimate includes the newly estimated Hautalampi area and its northeastern extension known as the Mökkivaara deposit area, which was the target of the year 2020 core drilling campaign. It is also based on a database containing ca. 82,000 meters, 457 holes of core drilling including 3,768 meters, 29 holes which were drilled during 2020.
In the measured category, the resource has been estimated at 2,582,000, grading 0.38% nickel, 0.28% copper, and 0.08% cobalt. In the indicated category, the estimation is at 2,701,000 tonnes grading 0.31% nickel, 0.20% copper, and 0.08% cobalt. Contained metals have been estimated at 18,289 tonnes of nickel, 12,783 tonnes of copper and 4337 tonnes of cobalt.
“We have a plan for an additional core drilling campaign in the next months to close the gap between Hautalampi and Mökkivaara resource area,” García said. “We believe that with this additional drilling the tonnage will also increase in the future. The next step will be to use this robust resource base for the technical and economical evaluations of the project viability.”
The executive pointed out that his company’s goal is to help Europe become self-sufficient in ethical battery minerals.
