Fäboliden Gold Mine
Overview
The Fäboliden Gold Mine (“Fäboliden”) is located in northern Sweden, 700 kilometres north of the Swedish capital Stockholm. It represents a large orogenic gold deposit, the ore from which can be trucked to, and processed at the Company’s Svartliden Plant 30 kilometres by road to the northwest.
The 958.26 hectare Fäboliden project area controlled by Dragon Mining comprises the Fäboliden K nr 1 Exploitation Concession that hosts the Fäboliden gold deposit and an Exploration Permit that fully surrounds the Exploitation Concession and the immediate strike extensions of the Fäboliden gold deposits host geological sequence.
Exploration at Fäboliden commenced in 1993 and has primarily involved drilling over a 21 year period, prior to Dragon Mining acquiring the asset in 2015 from the Bankruptcy Estate of Lappland Goldminers Fäboliden AB (“Lappland”).
Since acquiring the asset in 2015, Dragon Mining has focused on the higher grade core of gold mineralisation within the broad low grade halo targeted by Lappland, with the objective of establishing an integrated mining and processing operation, using the Company’s existing process infrastructure at Svartliden.
Geology and Mineralisation
The Fäboliden gold deposit is located along the Gold Line, southwest of the Skellefte Mining District in northern Sweden. The geology in the area comprises Svecofennian meta-sediments with intercalations of meta-volcanics, mainly mafics of the Botnia Group.
The supracrustal rocks in the Lycksele-Storuman area are surrounded by intrusive alkali-calcic granites of the Revsund suite. The metamorphic grade in the area ranges from lower to middle amphibolite facies.
The Gold Line is host to a number of gold occurrences, of which the Svartliden gold deposit is the only occurrence to date that has been developed and mined. The Fäboliden gold deposit is one of the largest gold deposits discovered along the Gold Line.
Mineralisation at Fäboliden is hosted in arsenopyrite bearing quartz veins, within a north-south trending reverse, mainly dip-slip shear zone in Paleoproterozoic metavolcano-sedimentary host rocks. The stratigraphy strikes north-northeast – south-southwest and dips from approximately 50° to 70° east with the orientation steepening in the north.
The metasediments are strongly foliated and biotite-rich. They are commonly argillitic, with coarser-grained arenitic zones. The arenitic zones are generally less-deformed and at times display primary sedimentary textures. The metavolcanic rocks are similar in appearance to the metasediments. The metavolcanic rocks are also fine-grained and biotite-rich; however, the metavolcanic rocks are commonly distinctly banded.
The host sequence is cross-cut by a set of northwest-southeast striking, flat lying undeformed and unmineralised dolerites and the narrow belt of supracrustal rocks is surrounded the Revsund Granite.
Mineralisation spans 1,295 metres along strike and includes a 665 metre vertical extent from 485mRL to -180mRL. It represents a tabular style of mineralisation, with multiple narrow higher grade zones within a broad lower-grade halo that is up to 160 metres thick in places.
Gold is generally fine grained ranging from 2µm to 40 µm. It displays a strong association with sulphides and the most abundant gangue minerals. In particular sulphides, arsenopyrite, boulangerite and pyrrhotite are commonly associated with gold, whilst with silicate minerals the association with gold is diverse with feldspars, quartz and micas common.
Production
Test mining activities commenced at Fäboliden, with the first parcel of ore from the open pit, mined and transported to the Svartliden Plant during June 2019. Test mining activities concluded in September 2020. A total of 99,974 tonnes of ore grading 2.6 g/t gold was mined during the two phases of operation.
The Company continues to work towards obtaining environmental approval for full-scale mining at Fäboliden.
Exploration
Exploration at Fäboliden commenced in 1993 and has primarily involved drilling, with 333 holes (64,770.45 metres – 322 diamond core drill holes; 11 reverse circulation drill holes) completed prior to Dragon Mining’s acquisition of the project. In addition to drilling, other activities undertaken by the previous owners include test mining and processing, resource estimation and compilation of a Definitive Feasibility Study for a large tonnage low-grade mining and processing operation.
Dragon Mining has subsequently completed 132 diamond core drill holes for an advance of 8,618 metres and 59 reverse circulation drill holes for an advance of 1,648 metres. This drilling represents an infill campaign of the southern portion of the deposit reducing drill spacing in this area to a nominal 25 metre by 25 metre and 50 metre by 25 metre basis, an exploration-sterilisation campaign in the area of the proposed waste rock dump, a short-scale variability / grade control campaign undertaken on a nominal grid base of 10 metres by 6 metres in the area of the test-mining and an infill campaign of the northern portion of the deposit to improve drill density in this area.
Drilling campaigns undertaken by Dragon Mining have allowed the Company to complete Mineral Resource estimations for the higher-grade core and generate Ore Reserves that form part of a Life of Mine (“LOM”) study to a pre-feasibility level into the full-scale development of Fäboliden. The LOM study is based on the establishment of an open-pit mining operation and the haulage of ore to the Svartliden Plant. The Company also received a positive result from the Fäboliden Underground Scoping Study (the “Scoping Study”), a preliminary technical and economic study that was initiated for the purpose of assessing the viability of undertaking underground mining at the Fäboliden Gold Mine once open-pit mining had concluded.
Reserves and Resources
The Measured, Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource for the Fäboliden Gold Mine totals 10,000 kt grading 3.1 g/t gold for 1,000 kozs, inclusive of Ore Reserves as at 31 December 2021. The Mineral Resource is reported at a 1.1 g/t gold cut-off for material inside the Revenue Factor (“RF”) 120% Pit Shell and 2.0 g/t gold for material outside the RF 120% Pit Shell. The cut-off levels are based on costs and recoveries from the updated Fäboliden Life-of-Mine (“LOM”) study and a gold price of US$1,800 per troy ounce that is extrapolated for the potential economic extraction of the resource at a level approximating 120% of the long term average consensus forecast gold price of US$1,500 per troy ounce.
The Company achieved a positive outcome for the updated LOM for the development of the Fäboliden Gold Mine, generating a total Proved and Probable Ore Reserve of 2,800 kt grading 3.0 g/t gold for 280 kozs as at 31 December 2021. The Ore Reserves are reported at an in-situ ore cut-off grade of 1.33 g/t gold that is based on a long term consensus forecast gold price of US$1,500 per troy ounce, a USD:SEK exchange rate of 8.66, process recovery of 80%, mining factors and costs.
The LOM study is based on the establishment of an open-pit mining operation and the haulage of ore to Dragon Mining’s Svartliden Plant. The Fäboliden Ore Reserves demonstrate a base case operation, which the Company expects to further enhance before full-scale mining commences.
For further information on the Ore Reserves and Mineral Resources for the Fäboliden Gold Mine refer to the Resources and Reserves page.
Environment
On 23 November 2017, the County Administration Board (“CAB”) in Västerbotten granted Dragon Mining a Permit for test mining operations at Fäboliden (“Test Mining Permit”), the Test Mining Permit obtained legal enforcement on the 11 May 2018. The Company commenced pre-stripping activities in August 2018 and extracted and transported the first ore to the Svartliden Plant in June 2019. In accordance with the conditions of the Test Mining Permit, test-mining activities concluded at the end of September 2020.
The Company continues to work towards obtaining environmental approval for full-scale mining at Fäboliden.
