Mining company with license in East Greenland under compulsory dissolution

The mountains around the Archipelago between Tasiilaq and Ittoqqortoormiit attract both researchers and mineral companies, but the companies have generally had difficulty commercializing the metals. Skaergaard Mining is currently under compulsory liquidation.

The Canadian mining company Major Precious Metals owns 100 percent of Skaergaard Mining A/S, which has three exploration licenses in the area. Major Precious Metals was in the area in 2021 and conducting drilling programs. Today, Skaergaard Mining is under compulsory liquidation.Xploration Services

TRINE JUNCHER JØRGENSENTUSAGASSIORTOQ / JOURNALIST

SUNDAY 31 MARCH 2024 15:44

The mountains between Miki Fjord and Kangerlussuaq fjords are characterized by a special layered rock type - which is characteristic of intrusions. Researchers from GEUS have just published two new collections of knowledge about mineral deposits and rock types in the area, compiled on the basis of twenty tons of drill cores, decades of data collection and hundreds of scientific studies.

- The area around Skærgården is in many ways a world-renowned location, says Troels FD Nielsen, who is a geologist and emeritus at GEUS. He says that the special layering in the Skærgård intrusion has been educational for how researchers today perceive the crystallization of lava into rocks.

- The Skærgård intrusion was the first well-described example of how lava is pushed up to a few kilometers below the earth's surface, crystallized and preserved as the rock **bro. The intrusion has therefore been absolutely fundamental for the scientific understanding of the formation of rocks. In addition, in the original approximately 300 cubic kilometers of **bro, metals such as gold and palladium are found, which exploration companies are particularly interested in exploiting.

Power to X

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Palladium is a silver-white, shiny precious metal, which is somewhat reminiscent of platinum, and is used, among other things, in catalysts, jewelry and alloy material.

- But palladium can also be used when you have to separate seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. That's what you do in Power to X. And that's why palladium has gained renewed importance, says Troels FD Nielsen, who estimates that the layer is approximately five meters thick for palladium and 1-2 meters for gold, extending over a central part of the intrusion.

- How much palladium and gold there is in total is very difficult to say, and it also depends on how you calculate it. And the big question is, of course, whether it costs more to get the metals out of the mountains than the value of what you can sell afterwards. After all, this is the balance that raw material companies constantly make.

Under compulsory dissolution

Over the years, many different companies have sat on the exploration license in the area, including Eastern Zinc Corporation, Gryphon Metals Corporation, Platinova Resources, Galahad Resources and Platina Resources.

Currently, it is a Canadian company; Major Precious Metals, which owns 100 percent of Skaergaard Mining A/S, has three exploration licenses of 107 km2, 16 km2 and 754 km2 or a total of 877 km2 in the area. However, none of the investigations have yet led to real mining, and it probably won't for the time being either. For Skaergaard Mining A/S is under compulsory liquidation. This appears from the CVR register. The Norwegian Natural Resources Agency informs Sermitsiaq that they are in dialogue with the company, as is the practice when a company is under compulsory liquidation, bankruptcy or the like.

Drilling program and analyses

Back in 2021, Major Precious Metals was otherwise in the area and carried out a drilling program where they took 32 long drill cores from an area of approximately 10 km2. In addition, they collected 250 meters of channel samples from four different areas, which have subsequently been analyzed for gold, palladium, platinum and other metals. The company also tested shipping by bulk ship. The Greenlandic logistics company Xploration Services supported the work in East Greenland.

The latest announcement about the occurrence came out in June 2022, when Major Precious Mining wrote that the analyzes confirmed that the company has a palladium- and gold-rich resource of global importance, as well as that there is potential for further resource upgrades and expansion of the project area.

But since June 2022 there has been silence about the company, which is based in Vancouver on the Canadian west coast. However, a major change in the management was announced in October 2023 following the resignations of director Anthony (Tony) Williams and deputy directors Joel Dumaresq and Fred Tejada.