Laiva is situated in Ostrobothnia, outside Raahe, in the midst of the Finish mining belt, which stretches from Raahe by the Baltic Sea across Finland to Lake Ladoga in Russia. To search for gold is nothing new in this area. The gold history of Lapponia started off by the gold rush to the Ivalo river in the 1870’s and continued at Lemmejoki after the World Wars.

 

The Laiva deposit was discovered by amateur explorers at the beginning of the 1980s and was claimed by Nordic Mines in 2005. Laiva’s bedrock is dominated by intermediary to basalt volcanic rock and quartz diorites. The mineralization was formed when pressure and movement in the earth crust opened up cracks into which warm, circulating movements brought gold and other elements. As the geochemical circumstances were favourable and the liquids were cooled down, the gold felled out and formed the mineralization that we see today. These can be found in vertical zones and pathways of quartz running from east to west. Test mining and concentration has shown that more than 90 per cent of the gold can be mined based on fairly simple technology.

 

Development of Laiva’s mineral resources

During 2008 extensive drilling has continued at the Laiva deposit. The mineral resource including measured and indicated resource has during 2008 increased from 10,47 million tonnes @ 2,29 grams of gold per ton to 14,39 million tonnes @ 2,21 grams per ton, the increase correspond to 7 800 kilo of gold.
Drilling performed since last update of the mineral resource has focused on extending the mineral resource in the southern mineralization, and to increase the drilling density in the central part of the central mineralization.

 

 

Today, the known and indicated mineral resources amount to 32 tons of gold. This confirms that Laiva probably is one of the biggest gold deposits ever discovered in the Nordic countries. The deposit is found near the surface, which means that the major part of it can be mined in an opencast mine, resulting in lower production costs. Furthermore, the gold content is relatively high, which means that the prospects are good for high profitability.

Nordic Mines cooperates with CSA Global, an international mining consultant, concerning calculations of the mineral resources and ore reserves in Laiva. Responsible, competent person at CSA Global, is Malcolm Titley. CSA Global has reported the mineral resource in October 2008, in accordance with National Instrument, Ni 43-101, and the mineral resource in March 2009, in accordance with JORC (Australasian Joint Ore Reserves Committee).