Introduction : The Syrjala Gold project of Kalevala Gold Oy is located within the southern part of the Suomussalmi greenstone belt, in eastern Finland, on the north-western side of Lake Kiantajärvi and approximately 600 km from the capital, Helsinki.
The nearest centre of population is Suomussalmi, around 40 km south of the project area, which has a railway station. The nearest domestic airport is Kuusamo, around 100 km north of the project area, which has regular flights to Helsinki international airport. The project area is accessible from the main E63 road and is suitable for heavy vehicle traffic. A number of forestry gravel roads provide access internally within the project area. Electric power lines follow all of the main roads in this area.
Status of Licenses: The Syrijala project consists of 3 exploration licenses and 1 mining lease which cover a total area of 150 Sq.km (1522.97 Ha). The exploration licenses are for multiple commodities including Gold, Nickel and Copper. Extension is sought for these applications, as per the Mining Law of Finland. For the mining lease application, additional data is being submitted and is under process.
Geology and Resource Potential : The Syrjälä project area is mainly underlain by basic to intermediate volcanic rocks with minor ultramafic units including basaltic and tholeiitic lavas. Within the basalts are agglomerates and volcanic breccias. Mineralisation occurs in a narrow mylonitic alteration zone and is associated with garnet, biotite, quartz and sulphides. The rocks in this area have been folded and foliated and have a strong lineation which plunges east and northeast.
Secondary northwest and southwest trending shear zones and joints cut the folds axial plane foliations and the mineralised zone. These are also thought to be associated with the emplacement of barren Proterozoic dolerite dykes.
* The four known in-situ gold prospects comprise as below:
a. Kuikka(Kuikankulta)
b. Syrjälä North (Syrjälä)
c. Syrjälä South (Syrjälä)
d. Vasonniemi.
Gold mineralization is controlled by shear zones with hydrothermal alteration. Kuikka trench which is excavated along the strike direction (N-S, Dip steep easterly) exposed mafic volcanic rock showing hydrothermal alteration (biotite, chlorite, silicification) and shearing. The adjascent photo shows the quartz vein exposed in the trench.
To the east of Kuikka Prospect some boulders have reportedly indicated gold grades upto 400 g/t.
Significant amount of drilling exploration has been carried out by Finland Geological Survey (GTK). Subsequently Kelavala Gold Oy and it’s parent company Mineral Exploration Network Finland has carried out RAB drilling to confirm the previous drill data. Latest drilling has shown significant, wide ore grade intersections.
Kalavela Oy carried out bulk sampling within the Kuikka trench to assess gravity separation gold. The Kuikka gold deposit is represented by mineralized zone with strike of 1km. High grade zone (>10 ppm) has strike 300 meters containing about 1000 kg of gold (Not JORC resources).
The trench exposed mafic volcanic rock showing hydrothermal alteration (biotite, chlorite, and silicification) and shearing. The adjacent photo shows the quartz vein exposed in the trench. A total of 130 tones sample was collected and subjected to gravitation extraction which returned 591 g of gold in Dore bar and 450 g of fine gold in gravitation concentrate.
Based on the historical drilling data, GTK estimated a non-compliant unclassified resource of 54000 tonnes at 14.6 g/t Au at 1.0 g/t cut-off which amounts to 27810 Ozs. SRK UK delineated an exploration target between 80-150 kt of mineralization grading between 4-12 g/t. Au without applying any cut-off grade. These resources are estimated only upto a depth of 40 to 50m. However, The mineralization system extends much deeper. Further drilling is planned to target 200m depth to achieve an initial resource of 150,000 Oz.