Svartliden Production Centre

Overview

The Svartliden Production Centre (“Svartliden Centre”) is located in northern Sweden, 700km north of Stockholm  within the area locally referred to as the ‘Gold Line’.

 

The Svartliden Centre was brought into production in March 2005 and represents the first integrated mine and treatment plant to be developed under the new Swedish Environment and Mining Acts.  At the completion of processing ore from the Svartliden Gold Mine in 2015, 377,347 ounces of gold had been produced.

 

Subsequent to this, the Svartliden Plant has been utilised to process gold concentrates from the Company’s Finnish operation and the processing of ore from test mining at the Fäboliden Gold Mine.

 

The Gold Line  has been a focus for exploration in northern Sweden, following the discovery of gold bearing boulder samples in area during the 1980´s. The Svartliden gold deposit was first drilled in 1995 and Dragon Mining acquired its initial interest in the project in 2000. The Company now holds a 100% interest in the Svartliden Production Centre, which compromises the Svartliden Plant, the Svartliden Gold Mine and the Fäboliden Gold Mine.

Svartliden Production Centre

Processing

The Svartliden Plant is a conventional comminution and carbon in leach (CIL) circuit with a design capacity of 300,000 tonnes per annum.

With the completion of mining at the Svartliden Gold Mine, the Svartliden Plant continued to operate treating low grade stockpiles, gold concentrates from the Company’s Finnish operations and ore from test mining at the Fäboliden Gold Mine.

Environment

The Svartliden Production Centre has undergone a number of expansions and changes throughout its operational life. Since the initial Operating Permit, obtained in 2003, the Company has engaged in various environmental permitting processes related to Svartliden and Fäboliden, including permitting of underground mining, tailings disposal in the completed open pit, updated discharge conditions, rehabilitation requirements, external ore and concentrate processing, plus Fäboliden test mining. The Swedish Environmental Act and it’s implementation is among the most stringent in Europe, and the world. Permitting of mining operations is conducted via the Swedish Land and Environment Court ensuring objective and democratic handling of permit applications in a thorough manner, whereby every stakeholder possesses unhindered rights to participate throughout the entire process. The company’s long track record of obtaining and updating necessary environmental permits demonstrates the operations ability to successfully consult and engage with permitting authorities and stakeholders. An important ability that is strengthened by the operations long track record of adherence to the rigorous permit conditions, with actual environmental performance going hand in hand with perceived trust and reliability of the Company and its operations.