Artemis takes project hunt northThursday, 12 March 2015
Jack McGinn
IT’S NOT every day an Australian base metals, gold and antimony focused explorer acquires an abandoned 100-year-old graphite mine in Greenland, but Artemis Resources recently bucked the trend.
Last month, the company added to its portfolio of four Western Australian projects through the acquisition of an exploration licence containing the historic Amitsoq mine, where 6000 tonnes of graphite at 21.5% was mined from 1915 to 1924 – and very little has happened since.
The mine is located on Amitsoq Island in southern Greenland, and has a residual resource of 250,000t of graphite ore at an average grade of 20%.
While Artemis has every intention exploring the site for further graphite content, company director and exploration manager Ed Mead told MiningNewsPremium the acquisition was made with the hope of finding something a little more familiar to it at Amitsoq.
“The focus at our west Pilbara projects is mostly copper and nickel, and the Amitsoq mine is also highly prospective for both nickel and platinum group elements,” Mead said.
“There’s a known structure to the west we think comes across and intersects the licence.
“We’ve got the start with historical graphite production around 21% and there’s obviously a non-JORC exploration target of initially around 1 million tonnes, but a lot of the work that we would do for graphite is the same technique you would use to look for nickel sulphide.
“We think we could potentially get really good value for money from this project. If we find graphite that’s great, if we find nickel sulphide – fantastic.”
Location, location
While Amitsoq may present Artemis with geographic challenges different to those faced in the Pilbara, Mead said its location relative of other Greenlandic projects was favourable.
“The project sits right at the southern tip of Greenland, which means it’s ideally situated for access to the North American and European markets,” he said.
“That means if we do find something we can go straight from a mining operation to a processing facility and on to a boat, so there’s a limited amount of infrastructure required to get product to market.”
The project’s location presents significant benefits for Artemis’ explorative efforts as well.
While ice and snow typically impact efforts further to the north of the country, Amitsoq escapes the worst of mother nature’s force.
“The project is ice-free, which means you can access it pretty much year-round,” Mead said.
“Generally if you’re in production in Greenland, then you can operate all year no problem at all, and if you’re in advanced exploration you’ve probably got about six or seven months on the ground.
“But if you’re in early stage exploration your field season is quite short, maybe three to four months. That’s mainly because you get snow, and when you get snow you can’t see anything.”
In terms of regulation, Mead said the processes required to acquire a mining licence in Greenland were similar to those Artemis had experienced in the Pilbara, though tenures were generally longer.
However, the system is particularly hard on those who don’t meet their spending requirements, with a fine of 50% of the spending commitment for those who fall short of expenditure targets.
“We’re lucky the expenditure commitments aren’t that large in our project area – it’s not like we’re looking to spend hundreds of thousands, it’s in the tens of thousands,” Mead said.
Junior ambition
As the market continues to present significant challenges for junior explorers, Artemis believes there is niche potential in the Amitsoq project.
“The most valuable graphite product you can produce is jumbo flake, but by nature, rapid mining of graphite with lots of processing effectively destroys the flake size,” Mead said.
“If you want to produce, I think you need to be looking at more boutique mining to produce a quality product like jumbo flake – that’s more the space for a junior company.
“You should be aiming to actually try and make money, not go from zero to rival BHP, which is generally the dream everybody tries to promote.”
The company is already exploring opportunities to expand its graphite portfolio in the country.
Future thinking
With the Greenlandic summer and plans for electromagnetic testing drawing nearer, Mead said he firmly believed the company was on the right track with the Amitsoq acquisition.
“People go ‘why the hell are you running off to Greenland?’, but our board has a fairly favourable view on the future of nickel sulphide, and graphite is also a commodity that looks like it’s got a very good future,” he said.
“Particularly when Tesla (Motors) gets its Gigafactory going in Nevada, they’re saying they’ll need six new graphite mines to feed it, and they need high-quality jumbo flake, so this project fits the profile.
“As a resource company you should never stop looking for projects that could be a company maker or that could be turned into a mine – irrespective of what projects you already have.”
