Bluejay Mining plc, the AIM, FSE listed and OTCQB traded exploration and development company with projects in Greenland and Finland, is pleased to announce that the first exploration programme of 2022 has been successfully completed at the Enonkoski nickel-copper-cobalt (‘Ni-Cu-Co’) Project in eastern Finland as part of the Joint Venture (‘JV’) & earn-in agreement with Rio Tinto Exploration Finland Oy (‘Rio Tinto’) announced 10 November 2020.
 
The first Enonkoski JV diamond drill programme of 2022 focused on follow-up drilling at Muhelampi located 2.5 kilometres west of the former Laukunkangas Ni-Cu-Co mine and Laukunlampi located directly south-east of the mine. Both targets were also drilled by the JV in 2021.
 
Highlights of the completed and ongoing exploration activities

• Follow-up diamond drilling at the Muhelampi and Laukunlampi targets drilled in 2021. A total of three new diamond drill holes and one drill hole extension for a total of 1,648.20 metres was drilled in May-July 2022.
• A downhole electromagnetic survey (‘DHEM’) was completed on the drill hole extension and two new drill holes at the Laukunlampi target located south-east of the former Laukunkangas Ni-Cu-Co mine.
• A top of bedrock (‘ToB’) drilling programme focusing on the large Muhola mafic intrusion in the central parts of the Enonkoski Belt and two new targets in the south-eastern parts of the belt were completed in May-June with a total of 61 ToB diamond drill core samples retrieved and are currently being processed and interpretated.
• All diamond and ToB drill core samples have been analysed at ALS and all assay data has been received.
• Geological mapping and sampling are ongoing with the aim to sample known mafic-ultramafic intrusive outcrops for modern analysis.
• All drilling, assay, geophysical, geological mapping and new sampling data are currently being processed, integrated and interpreted in a joint effort by the JV partners and will be used to decide on the next phase of activities within the Enonkoski project.

Thomas Levin, COO of Bluejay subsidiary FinnAust Mining Finland Oy, commented: “I am pleased to report that our diamond and ToB drilling at the Enonkoski JV project with Rio Tinto in eastern Finland has been successfully completed. The ToB sampling continued to provide high quality bedrock core samples enabling large areas covered by till to be geologically mapped adding valuable information to future target generation.

“Several north-south traverses across the Muhola intrusion and nearby smaller targets identified by gravity data modelling have now been completed and multiple targets have been defined for future follow-up work. One of the key areas of the ongoing mapping and sampling programme is the Kiislampi intrusion close to the historic Hälvälä mine in the south-eastern parts of the belt and I am confident that the analytical data from both the ToB and outcrop samples will improve our geological understanding of this high priority target.

“The ToB results from Tieaho once again show how cost-effective the method can be, with only four drill holes drilled through the till cover at Tieaho confirming a previously unknown mafic intrusion in close vicinity of a historic mafic intrusive hosted nickel-copper-cobalt mine.

“Following analysis of the single diamond drill hole drilled at Muhelampi the team has decided to stop further exploration activities here in the near-term. Although nickel and copper sulphides have been identified in historic drill core from Muhelampi, the current interpretation indicate that the mafic intrusion is too small to host any significant mineralisation.

“At Laukunlampi the diamond drilling provided new intercepts of pyroxenitic and noritic rocks with sulphide droplets and sulphide dissemination. The target is, as we knew from earlier drilling, geologically complex and detailed modelling is needed prior to any further field activities. Drilling at drill hole ENON0025 at Laukunlampi was stopped due to technical difficulties and unfortunately the lower contact of the intrusion was not intersected with this drill hole, but with a final depth of over 600 metres we now know that the Laukunlampi intrusion has a much greater volume at depth than what we earlier thought. The assay results show an evident compositional change towards more mafic rocks in the last 50 metres of the hole making this an interesting new potential target for future work.

“Additionally, it is also positive to note that appeals submitted last year on four of our granted Exploration Permits in Finland have been dismissed by the Administrative Court of Eastern Finland. The Finnish regulatory framework provides an option for stakeholders to appeal granted Permits and appeals are not uncommon.  This is part of the transparent and secure permitting process in Finland. I’m pleased to see that the legal processes related to the appeals were concluded within a year.

“We look forward to providing further updates to the market in due course on the Enonkoski project.”