Bluejay Mining will take back a 100% ownership stake in the Enonkoski nickel-copper-cobalt project in Finland, as its joint venture (JV) agreement has ended with mining company Rio Tinto.

Through the JV and earn-in agreement signed in 2020, Bluejay and Rio Tinto Exploration Finland carried out exploration work at the Enonkoski project and Rio Tinto could have earned an interest of up to 75% in the project.

With Rio Tinto ending the JV agreement, it will cease to have any stake in the Finland-based project.

As a result, Bluejay’s subsidiary, FinnAust Mining Finland, will retain all data, samples and drill cores from the project collected during the JV agreement.

Bluejay CEO Bo Møller Stensgaard said the Enonkoski project was one of the least visible within its portfolio prior to the JV with Rio Tinto.

Stensgaard said: “The JV has enabled us to significantly advance our knowledge of the project through $4.65m [£3.62m] in exploration expenditure and it has opened up the potential of targets close to the Hälvälä Ni-Cu-Co Mine, as well as targets within less explored parts of the Enonkoski Belt that remain untested.

“The exploration programmes carried out to date have strengthened our belief in the prospectivity of the project, and we maintain that Enonkoski will continue to augment Bluejay’s portfolio of assets.”

The Enonkoski project comprises a previously producing nickel-copper mine, which produced 6.7 million tonnes of nickel at an average grade of 0.8% between 1984 and 1994.

Bluejay is now planning to focus on assessing numerous as-yet-untested targets that have been identified along the Enonkoski Belt.

Meanwhile, the company plans to undertake detailed ground gravity and airborne magnetic surveys at the Outokumpu copper-zinc-nickel-cobalt-silver-gold project in Finland.

Source: Mining Technology