Pajala consists of three contiguous 15-year licences covering 52 sq km: Lehtosölkä Deposit: 1.75Mt with 9.6% C, Liviövaara Main: >0.5Mt with 23% C and the Lehtosölkä 2. The focus is graphite, the largest input battery raw material by volume and therefore crucial to the EV value chain.
Work has indicated that high grade graphite e.g. 4.7m grading 39.8% is present at Liviovaara. This hole has two others nearby that show continuity but are likely to have a folded nature. N-Liv-03 had 8.4m grading 29% C. These values are in line with Talga Group’s Vittangi project that claims highest grade graphite in the world (19.4Mt grading 24% C).
The copper, iron-oxide, gold and cobalt mineralisation encountered in the drilling is interesting with some broad intervals of low-grade copper that suggest there is potential for a larger IOCG system at Liviövaara. There is little in the way of outcrop but the graphite horizon identified from drilling extends over 300m.
The Pajala Graphite project in Northern Sweden
Key Project Takeaways
- Project focus is high grade graphite critical to the battery market.
- Europe needs a local and reliable supply to feed its rapidly expanding EV battery production.
- Excellent location and favourable infrastructure.
- The natural graphite has various flake sizes with some tests reporting 50% grains >0.2mm (200 microns) which would be considered medium to large flakes. These could be sold for >$500 –>$1,000 per tonne in 2020 depending on purity produced.
- Project can be fast tracked to resource definition.
