Bleikvassli Exploration and Mining History

The area now covered by the Bleikvassli exploration licenses has an extensive history of exploration and mining, operating as the Bleikvassli Gruven from the years 1957-1997, producing a total of 5.0 Mt grading an average of 4% Zn, 2% Pb, 0.15% Cu and 25 g/t Ag (Geological Survey of Norway, 2017). As part of the mining operation, over 1,000 drillholes were completed and underground workings were excavated over nearly a kilometre strike length and to several hundred meters depth. There remain onsite at the Bleikvassli mine facility numerous paper records of drill sections, level and plans and production records that have not been digitized or evaluated by modern methods. In addition to the paper records retained at the mine site, several drillholes from the mining operation are currently housed and available for review at the NGU’s National Drill Core and Sample Centre in the town of Løkken.

NGU Drillcore Storage Facility

NGU Drillcore Storage Facility

NGU Drillcore Storage Facility

NGU Drillcore Storage Facility

Examples of some of the NGU’s selected grab(?) samples of drill core currently stored in the Løkken Core library (sample widths or depth are unknown):

There are no summary datasets were available for review however, results of the in-mine drilling and exploration were sufficiently successful to keep the mine in operation for 40 years. Summary statements of historical records suggest there was an economically significant quantity mineralized material remaining within the mine at the time of closure (due to flooding) in 1997; historical records state that the area originally to contained 6.5 Mt of mineralized material  of which only 5.0 Mt was mined, suggesting that 1.5 Mt could potentially remain un-mined. However, previous workers did not outline their key assumptions, parameters and methods of resource estimation and did not specify resource categories for this estimate and as such are not compliant with NI 43-101 standards. These historical estimates have been provided for context only and Norra is not treating these resources as current resources.

Upon closure of the mine in 1997, the owners at the time transitioned their company from a mining operation to a mining and earthworks contractor. Mineral extraction rights to the mine itself were apparently allowed to lapse following closure; the current exploration rights were registered by EMX Royalty Corp in 2018 and are now subject to a definitive agreement whereby ownership of the licences will be transferred to Norra Metals.

Prior to closure of the mine, a series of exploration programs were undertaken by the NGU in the Bleikvassli region, with the aim of finding additional mineralization for the mine. A series of stream sediment surveys took place in 1965, 1969, 1970, 1981 and 1982 over a large (several hundred square kilometre) area which includes the Bleikvassli mine.. Additional soil and stream sediment surveys were carried out in 1985 and 1986, both of which were large-scale with sampling density of 1 sample/10 km² and 1 sample/40 km², respectively. Data from these surveys shows anomalous lead and zinc values from both the immediate vicinity of the Bleikvassli mine and an area several kilometres southeast of the mine. The area is not given a name as part of the work during 1985 & 1986, but corresponds to what was termed the Brunesbekken showing by later workers.

During the 1993 season, a large-scale C-horizon soil sampling program was undertaken, with samples taken at 1 km grid spacing over an 40 km x 35  km area, extending east from the Bleikvassli mine area towards the Swedish border. This program outlined several anomalies in the immediate vicinity of the Bleikvassli mine which were followed up during the 1995 field season with several smaller scale surveys. Only one of these surveys  was conducted over an area now encompassed by the Bleikvassli property (the area was termed Hallvarddalen) and roughly corresponds to the area now covered by the northern portion of the Bleikvassli 3 and Bleikvassli 4 tenures). Sampling in this area returned several significant Pb-Zn-Cu soil anomalies, and additional work was recommended at the time.

In addition to these soil anomalies, mineralization has been recorded in drilling at the Brunesbekken area, approximately 1.5 km south of the Bleikvassli mine. Two exploration holes were drilled in this area in 1987, with additional ground-based EM surveying in 1995 and six more drillholes in 1997. Results of the EM survey showed a conductive zone at depth, which provided the basis for the follow-up drilling in 1997. Drilling intercepted a zone of weak mineralization.

Finally, the NGU rock sample database contains a set of samples from the southeastern end of the property in an area known as Kongsfjellet, many of which returned Zn and Pb values in excess of several percent. Though there is no mention of specific sampling dates or methodology, quality of the NGU’s geochemical and spatial data is considered good, and these samples are a reliable basis for follow up work in the area.

Reference: 2021 Technical Report on the Bleikvassli Project by David Swanton, M.Sc., P.Geo. dated January 27, 2021