The Kuhmo Nickel Joint Venture (“Kuhmo Project”) contains a number of Archean komatiite-hosted nickel sulphide deposits and a large number of highly prospective exploration targets within the Karelian Craton of eastern Finland. The Kuhmo Project is 95% owned by Vulcan Resources Limited (“Vulcan”) and is a joint venture with Polar Mining Oy (“Polar”). The project has approximately 50 square kilometres of strategic landholding that extends between the regional centres of Kuusamo in the north and Kuhmo in the south.
The Karelian Craton is a typical Archean granite-greenstone terrain with greenstone belts comprised of ultramafic, mafic and felsic volcanic rocks and minor sedimentary rocks. The ultramafic rocks host massive and disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation similar to well endowed Archean greenstones in Australian and Canada.
Comparison of the Kuhmo Project with other known komatiite terrains that are highly endowed in nickel mineralisation highlights that these better explored terrains typically host clusters of deposits that are the basis for mining, and within which new deposits have been discovered over time. This clustered nature is characteristic of komatiite hosted nickel sulphide deposits, suggesting that the deposits discovered to date in Finland are a compelling indicator of the high potential for discovery of further mineralisation.