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Why Norwegian mining projects have been 'been dormant for the last 40 years' - Capella Minerals
(Kitco News) - Metals not worth including in economic models decades ago are now helping rejuvenate old projects, said Capella Minerals CEO Eric Roth.
On Friday, Roth spoke to Kitco at the Deutsche Goldmesse conference in Frankfurt, Germany.
Capella Minerals (CVE:CMIL) is a Canadian gold and copper exploration and development company with properties located in Canada and Scandinavia.
Roth is former head of Extorre Gold Mines. The company was acquired by Yamana Gold in 2012 for C$440 million.
Capella’s portfolio includes three copper projects in central Norway, the resource-stage Hessjøgruva Project and drill-stage Kjøli and Løkken Projects. Capella also has projects in Finland, Sweden and joint ventures in Canada.
Roth said he is excited about the Norway project because it was neglected. New metals have also come to the fore, like zinc and cobalt, which were excluded from the mine's economics.
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"These mines closed in the 1980s," said Roth. "The copper mines closed for two reasons: first of all copper prices basically tanked. In the mid-80s you're talking about copper at $1,500 a tonne whereas now its $10,000 a tonne. There's been a quantum shift in metal prices. Second, in Norway it was the discovery of oil. Oil generated so much money for the country that people just left the mining industry in hibernation to move into the oil space.
"Therein lies the opportunity for us, because these projects have basically been dormant for the last 40 years. They say in our business you know the best place to find a mine is in the in the shadow of a head frame so that's pretty well what we're doing in Norway."
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Kitco's coverage of Deutsche Goldmesse was sponsored by Defiance Silver.
