FAQ about Northland
Q
What is NI43-101 ?
A
Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Companies - Read more
Q
What is Northland Resources S.A.?
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Northland Resources S.A. ("Northland") is an exploration and development company trading as NAU on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and NAUR on the Oslo Børs. The share is also traded over the counter (OTC) in Frankfurt under the symbol NPK. The Company has a balanced portfolio of advanced and early stage iron projects in Sweden and Finland. Northland has no mining operations and no production, although its projects are at a very advanced stage. If you are planning to invest in Northland, you should be clear that you are comfortable with the investment risks associated with exploration and development companies. While buying shares in junior companies such as NAU is one of the riskiest types of investment it can potentially be one of the most rewarding. If you have any doubts about the suitability of NAU shares in your portfolio, you should contact your investment advisor for further information.
Q
What is Northland's corporate objective?
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Northland aims to become a producing European iron ore mining company by 2012. If we're successful in executing our business plan, we will become Europe's second largest producer of high quality iron ore concentrate after the Swedish state company, LKAB.
Q
What is Northland's fiscal year?
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Northlands fiscal year runs from January 1 to December 31 each year.
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What is the Company's strategy?
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Northland plans to focus on the development of its Kaunisvaara Iron Concentrate Project in northern Sweden, which envisions a centralized mill, being supplied with feed from 3 different mines -- Tapuli, Sahavaara and Pellivuoma. In Finland we are advancing our Hannukainen/Kuervitikko IOCG Project, with the goal of releasing a DFS by Q4 2012. Our management will also assess new opportunities within the region as they arise.
Q
What is a DFS?
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A Definitive Feasibility Study is a detailed engineering study which defines the technical, economic, social and legal viability of a mining project with a high degree of reliability, identifying and quantifying any risks and providing sufficient information to determine whether or not the project should be advanced to the final engineering and construction stage.
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What is a PEA?
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A Preliminary Economic Assessment means a study that includes an economic analysis of the potential viability of mineral resources taken at an early stage of the project.
Q
How long has Northland been involved in Sweden and Finland?
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We first entered Sweden in late 2003 under an option agreement covering the Barsele project. In December 2004 we acquired a package of prospective mineral concessions via an agreement with Anglo American. We also staked additional mineral concessions under the Northland name in both in Finland and Sweden.
Q
Why are you exploring in Sweden and Finland?
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Sweden and Finland both have excellent infrastructure, with well developed road, rail and power networks. Both countries also have very skilled workforces and, importantly, a long history of mining. The governments of both countries are actively supporting the exploration and mining industry and have made huge amounts of high quality exploration data available to the industry at essentially no cost.
From an infrastructure stand point, the location of our projects could hardly be better. They represent strategic supplies of key metals within the European market. Our iron and iron-copper-gold resources are within 10-20km of a maintained railway in Finland, which leads to the port of Kemi in Finland.
From a geological stand point, the region hosts a number of giant mineral deposits, including the Kiruna iron deposit in Sweden, one of the world's great ore bodies. So we're exploring in the right geological address.
Q
What minerals are you looking for?
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Northland is exploring mainly for iron, copper and gold associated with a kind of mineral deposit known as an iron-oxide-copper-gold system (usually referred to by the abbreviation IOCG.) IOCG systems are an economically significant deposit style that has become an important target type in the portfolio of many companies. Deposits with IOCG affinities occur in a variety of geological settings around the world. Examples of world-class IOCG deposits include the Olympic Dam mine in Australia which hosts a resource of 2.7 billion tonnes grading 1.2% Cu, 0.5 g/t Au, and 0.4kg /t U3O8. Other examples include the huge Kiruna magnetite body in Sweden which has been mined for iron ore for close to 100 years. It originally hosted over 2 billion tonnes of magnetite ore but much of this is now mined out.
Q
Does management have the expertise to take these projects to production?
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Most members of the management team has long experience from the mining industry, both from Sweden and from abroad. Karl-Axel Waplan, who is CEO/President, is a Mining Engineer and the former President of Lundin Mining. We believe that the combination of experience and talent within the team is second to none in the junior sector. The other team members' biographies are available for review on our Management page.
Q
How will Northland work during the winter season?
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Our exploration projects operate all year round. In fact, much of our exploration -- particularly drilling operations - can only be carried out in many areas when there is sufficient ice on the lakes and bogs to support the weight of a drill rig.
There are a number of mines in Finland and Sweden that operate 12 months a year, including Kiruna and Malmberget in Sweden and Pahtavaara, and Kemi in Finland. In addition, Sweden and Finland cooperate in maintaining year round shipping lanes in the Gulf of Bothnia. Since the Port of Narvik in Norway is ice free all of the year, Northland can use cape size vessels carrying 180 000 tonnes. A new iron ore heated terminal in Narvik is also to be constructed.
Q
How restrictive are the environmental regulations in Sweden and Finland?
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The environmental regulations are comparable to any sophisticated industrialized country. The advantage in Finland and Sweden is that the regulations and permitting processes are mature, clearly defined and managed through a professional, efficient and timely permitting procedure. Northland has a team of environmental scientists and engineers dedicated to ensuring that our permit applications are submitted on time, and backed up with all of the necessary data to ensure that the project impacts are described as fully as possible.
Q
Are there producing mines in the region?
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Yes, Finland has 4 major active metallic mines and 9 major active non-metallic mines. The Swedish government owns two iron mines (Kiruna and Malmberget) in the region where we are working, which produce some 25 million tonnes annually of concentrates and pellets. There are 10 active non-ferrous mines in Sweden.
As well, there are 2 past producing mines on our mineral concessions in Finland; the Rautuvaara mine and the Hannukainen mine.
Q
Is it cheaper to deliver Swedish iron ore to Europe vs. ore from Brazil or Australia?
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There is a substantial difference in the shipping cost per tonne between European iron ore shipments and southern hemisphere shipments to, say, Germany. It is generally cheaper to bring iron ore from Sweden because of the shorter shipping route. The difference in transport cost per tonnes varies depending in part on the availability of shipping and the cost of fuel oil. In recent years, it has ranged from $5-6/tonne to as much as $25-30/tonne of ore.
Q
Are you able to separate the copper and gold from the iron in the deposits?
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The iron is first separated from the host rock which also contains the copper and gold by-products. This initial separation is typically accomplished through a process referred to as Magnetic Separation -- essentially the rock is crushed and the magnetic iron ore is extracted using a large industrial magnet. Once the iron has been stripped from the feed material, the copper and gold are recovered from the remaining material through a standard flotation process. The sulphur level is also reduced by flotation.
Q
Do you plan to raise any money in the near future?
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No, the Company believes it has sufficient funds to start production at the Kaunisvaara project and thereby generate income as of first quarter 2013.
Q
Does Malmbanan have enough capacity for both LKAB and Northland?
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The Swedish government has allocated funds that will ensure increased capacity of the Malmbanan. The Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket ) has previously confirmed that it will aim to prioritize the Malmbanan to meet the increased demand from current and future iron ore producers. As a result, in total of four new passing sidings that will be finalized before 2015, two of these are on the leg between Kiruna and Riksgränsen. This will allow for more trains to use the rail line.
Q
How will Northland meet the growing need of recruitment?
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Northland’s two projects are located in a region with a long history of mining, and where many of the inhabitants have prior experience of working in mines. The municipality of Pajala, which is the city close to Kaunisvaara, is now a growing region, where more people can find job opportunities and settle down with their families. Northland is looking for skilled and experienced staff, please find more information under the tab “Work for Us”.