In September, EMerald Geomodelling worked together with Kuniko on a mineral exploration project that covered three of their sites in Norway. The respective locations were Vangrøfta and Undal Copper Projects, as well as the Skuterud Cobalt Project.
EMerald’s role in the project was to conduct airborne electromagnetic (AEM) surveys, and then to combine a multitude of data points into a full 3D model. This involved both data evaluation and data interpretation.
We used data from our own surveys - such as electromagnetic data, magnetic data and gamma ray spectrometry - as well as the clients own surface mapping and sampling data to get a large-scale overview of the geological units and structures of the area.
Combining our and the client’s data
Results of this work have now been published, and it’s been a very successful project – as we have been able to identify possibly significant conductors at all the three locations and have added significant geological knowledge about these sites:
- At Vangrøfta we were able to demonstrate a match to known mineral occurrences and also to show the differing depths to the different conductors, allowing Kuniko to anticipate the results of soil sampling with a predictive expectation.
- At Undal, the influence of the stratigraphy is very clear, permitting more detailed analysis of what constitutes an actual anomaly in the different lithologies.
- At Skuterud we found that the highest-conductivity units in the area were deeper than drill penetrations. This both focused and upgraded drilling target planning and, again, refined expectations of other sampling results to provide significant input to prospect risking, ranking and forward planning.
Laying the groundwork for future projects
These discoveries were important for Kuniko, as they gave them a much clearer image of the distribution of mineral potential across their areas. In particular the depth information, only provided by 3D data, will be critical in defining both prospectivity and targets.
“These initial geophysics interpretations will be extremely valuable in unlocking the potential of our cobalt and copper projects in Norway. While we knew these projects had a lot to offer, the geophysics analysis completed so far shows we have a set of high-quality targets for investigation across all areas we have surveyed”, says Antony Beckmand, CEO of Kuniko.
Anne Have Rasmussen, EMerald’s lead on this project, has been very satisfied – both with the project execution and the results it gave.
“We’ve had a great cooperation with Kuniko and the other involved parts throughout the whole project, so it’s great to see that the good work we’ve done together bears fruit”, Rasmussen concludes.
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