The gold mine will be situated close to the village of Vindelgransele, according to a report by VK. Botnia Exploration, the operating company, plans to extract roughly 50,000 tons of ore annually. The project is also expected to create 15 to 17 new jobs.
Analysis suggests the ore contains an average of 7.8 grams of gold per ton. With current gold prices at a high point, this is promising news for the project.
– The high prices have a positive impact on our calculations, explains Botnia Exploration CEO Fredrik Bergsten to VK.
– If we were to value the gold in the ground based on the current price, the total value of our reserves and resources would be around 1 billion kronor. Naturally, there are processing losses between extracting the rock and producing a saleable product, but it gives you an idea of the significance of this discovery.
The journey to mining has been lengthy since prospecting began in 2007. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket), among others, appealed against the project all the way to the Supreme Court. The final permits were granted last summer, paving the way for the first blast to create the access ramp leading down to the ore body.
– Depending on weather conditions, the first blasts might be audible since they'll be very close to the surface, Bergsten says.
– However, once operations move underground, the blasting will not affect nearby residents.
When asked by VK about the timeline for the first ore to be extracted, Bergsten replied:
–We anticipate collecting our initial tons of ore sometime after the holidays, likely in July or August.