Bluejay Mining Plc ORD 0.01p (LON:JAY) with projects in Greenland and Finland, has today announced that its 2017 exploration programmes at its Pituffik Titanium Project (‘Pituffik’) and Disko-Nuussuaq Magmatic Massive Sulphide Nickel-Copper-Platinum Project (‘Disko’) in Greenland have been approved by the Mineral Licence and Safety Authority (‘MLSA’) in Greenland.
Overview
· All work programmes for Pituffik and Disko approved by Greenland Government MLSA with work to commence imminently.
· Key deliverables:
o Drilling designed to expand and upgrade the current resource of 23.6Mt at 8.8% ilmenite (see Figure 1).
o Bulk sampling designed for progressing offtake discussions.
o Geotechnical drilling and mapping designed to underpin localised civil construction requirements.
o Fjord scale bathymetric survey managed by Geological Survey of Denmark (‘GEUS’) designed to map the regional seafloor to facilitate future transport logistics.
o Advance exploitation permitting as well as continued intensive stakeholder engagement.
· An independent peer comparison / benchmarking exercise confirms Pituffik as the highest-grade mineral sand ilmenite project globally. Bluejay to focus on the size characteristic of the project as key objective for 2017.
· High-power ground based electromagnetic (‘EM’) survey to be completed at Disko. The Company continues to evaluate options for best path to value creation for its portfolio, including Disko.
· EM survey sequenced to optimise cost and targeted for Q4 2017 completion.
Bluejay Mining PLC CEO Roderick McIllree said, “The 2017 work programme has begun. Development plans have been on the drawing board since the completion of our 2016 season and the finalised work programme is streamlined to deliver maximum result for cost. This will be a value add second half, as we demonstrate the true scale of this very unique project. Having proven that Pituffik is the highest-grade ilmenite project globally, we will now demonstrate the size characteristic and its ultimate commercial value.
“I would like to commend the team for their tireless preparation in getting us to this point, particularly as they have identified a strategic opportunity to undertake work at Disko for virtually no additional cost. We are prepared and ready for a very exciting work season.”
Ilmenite Project Benchmarking
Pituffik has been independently proven to be the highest-grade mineral sand ilmenite project globally. The objective for 2017 amongst many things is demonstrating the potential volume of the ilmenite rich sediments.
Figure 1: Benchmarking of global ilmenite mineral sands projects – see PDF
Pituffik Titanium Project
Bluejay Mining Plc ORD 0.01p through its 100% owned Greenlandic domiciled subsidiary, Dundas Titanium A/S (‘Dundas’), intends to complete three primary work programmes at Pituffik during its 2017 field season. These programmes are:
· Expand and upgrade resources utilising both auger and sonic drilling
Pituffik has an Inferred resource of 23.6Mt at 8.8% ilmenite (in situ), including a high-grade zone of 7.9Mt at 14.2% ilmenite, both of which sit within an SRK Exploration Target of between 90Mt and 130Mt with an in-situ grade of between 6.3% and 8.4% ilmenite. Crucially, this resource and exploration target represents only 17% of the raised beach environment within the Moriusaq target area. The raised beach environment is one of three types of domains within the licence area, with the other two being the active and drowned beach environments, and Moriusaq is one of two primary target areas, with the other being Interlak.
Drilling with both sonic and auger drill rigs will concentrate on increasing the total mineral inventory, demonstrating the project’s global significance and ultimately building Pituffik’s value potential. Work will particularly focus on the Iterlak region, where some of the highest grades were encountered in 2016. Drilling is scheduled to commence in July 2017, and will continue until September 2017.
Figure 2: Drill hole locations for refining the global resource at Pituffik – see PDF
· Proof-of-concept bulk sampling programme and production of geotechnical information for civil construction ahead of the potential construction of supporting infrastructure at Moriusaq in early 2018
Bluejay intends to undertake a bulk sample programme in July 2017, which will include the dredging of material from the active, raised and drowned beach environments in order to prove Bluejay’s ability to deliver product based on its current production model. Target groups for the bulk sample and off-takers have been identified and the mechanics of delivery and other technical support are in place. Evaluation of ground conditions for civil construction will also occur during the programme to enable the best construction methods for the infrastructure required at Pituffik. The majority of the bulk sample will be shipped from site in early August 2017.
· Bathymetric survey of a shipping channel to allow a bulk carrier to access Moriusaq
Side-scan sonar coupled with bathymetry surveying to identify shipping and transport logistics in and out of Moriusaq. Conducted by the GEUS, the survey is expected to take several weeks.
Disko-Nuussuaq Magmatic Massive Sulphide Nickel-Copper-Platinum Project
In addition to the Pituffik work programme approvals, the MLSA has also approved Bluejay’s work programme at the Disko-Nuussuaq Magmatic Massive Sulphide (‘MMS’) Nickel-Copper-Platinum-Cobalt Project. The Disko-Nuussuaq work program will take place in Q4 2017.
Disko is a flood basalt magmatic massive sulphide polymetallic occurrence of copper, nickel, platinum & cobalt group elements (‘PGE’). A 28 tonne boulder of MMS (assayed 7% nickel, 3% copper and 2ppm PGE) was found on Disko with all work to date pointing towards a direct analogy with Norilsk Nickel’s Norilsk-Talnakh project in northern Russia (‘Norilsk’), which recognised as the largest nickel-copper PGE and cobalt deposit in the world. Disko has been the subject of exploration work for more than three decades, with >US$50m invested in historical work by previous owners. Following a thorough review of this data, Bluejay has formulated a development programme and accordingly intends to undertake a ground based electromagnetic survey (‘EM’) on the southern portion of the licence area. This will focus on three primary target areas – Jose, Placido and Luciano.
Three ground based deep penetration EM surveys will be conducted with the aim of detecting strong bedrock conductors that might be associated with Norilsk-style (Ni-Cu-Pd bearing) sulphide mineralisation. Southern Geoscience Consultants has completed a full data compilation review and reprocess and has designed and will execute the next phase of work programmes designed to identify optimal drill hole locations during 2018. This programme will be conducted utilising equipment once it has been demobilised from Pituffik, which represents a huge cost saving in comparison to a standalone survey.
Figure 3: Field activities at Disko – see PDF
Figure 4: The three largest of the MMS targets at Disko – see PDF
