Bordvedåga
A block model of the Bordvedåga beryllium deposit.
+ SUMMARY
- Bordvedåga contains the only economically significant deposit of beryllium in Western Europe.
- The site is located 26 km from Mo i Rana, a regional hub and port city with active mining and process industries.
- Modelling based upon historical drill cores yields a closed off deposit containing an estimated 1.28 million kg of beryllium in only 1.6 million tons of ore (using a cut off grade of 0.2kg/t).
- A partially completed pre-feasibilty study has demonstrated that a concentrate with 23% BeO can be produced with 80% recovery.
- The above quantity of beryllium is sufficient to supply 100% of the European market's demand at current rates of consumption (40 tpa) for more than 20 years.
- Beryllium is a high-value commodity (600 to 1200 USD/kg).
- Beryllium is a material of strategic importance that has appeared on all critical raw material lists published by the EU and the USA.
- Beryllium has strong demand outlook due to its wide range of use in electronics, defense, aerospace, energy and medicine.
- There is customer demand for new suppliers to enter beryllium's unbalanced market.
- Limited analyses of surface samples and cores show that Bordvedåga hosts many other critical and energy metals including heavy rare earth elements, niobium, uranium, zirconium, hafnium, gallium and rubidium in economically interesting concentrations within a mineralized zone that extends beyond the delimited beryllium deposit. This zone is approximately 2 km long and 500 m wide.
+ LOCATION
The Bordvedåga project is located 26 km from the city of Mo i Rana in Nordland county. Mo i Rana is a regional hub with an active mining a process industry. Iron ore from Norway's largest producer (Rana Gruber) is shipped from the city's port and its access to abundant renewable energy is a key reason that the first "giga" battery plant in Norway is planned for construction in the city.
The claim area is dominated by outcrop and is located in a sparsely populated area. The Bordvedåga deposit has been declared a deposit of national interest by the Norwegian government and this is reflected in land use decisions related to the area.
The claim area is dominated by outcrop and is located in a sparsely populated area. The Bordvedåga deposit has been declared a deposit of national interest by the Norwegian government and this is reflected in land use decisions related to the area.
Bordvedåga location
+ GEOLOGY
- Mineralization at Bordvedåga lies within peraluminous gneiss of the Proterozoic Høgtuva Window within the Caledonides.
- The Høgtuva Window is thought to be an extension of the Transscandinavian Igneous Belt predominantly exposed in Sweden.
- It is believed the beryllium zone was enriched in lithophile elements at formation due to fractional crystallization. Earlier investigators identified an Yttrium (HREE)-rich zone as well as more heavily mineralized and weakly mineralized zones in the area.
- Phenakite, a readily processed beryllium mineral, is the main carrier of beryllium.
- Evidence suggests that lithophile metals were mobilized with varying efficiency during Caledonian orogeny by flourine-bearing fluids.
- The transported metals formed secondary U-Nb-Zr-REE mineralization zone that extends several kilometers along strike and that up to five hundred meters wide.
- Various other mineralization styles are present. For Example, the Geological Survey of Norway reports grades reaching 1.2% Be, 1.25% Nb, 1% U, 3.7% Zn, 4.4%Zr and 0.65% Y in a small skarnified area to the north west of the main deposit.