Arctic Minerals: Drilling program nearing completion
Metallurgy – key gap partially filled
The single most substantial news is the publication of historical metallurgical tests carried out at Minpro in Stråssa during 1982–83. We noted in the initiation report that no new metallurgical tests had been conducted and that the company relied on regional analogies. The now reported tests show that the Dingelvik and Henneviken samples respond well to conventional sulphide flotation with copper recoveries of over 90 percent for Henneviken and approximately 90 percent for Dingelvik – in line with what was assumed in the MRE calculation. Concentrate grades of approx. 30 percent Cu with 400–500 g/t silver are assessed to meet commercial smelter specifications, and penalty minerals (As, Sb, Bi) are classified as low to moderate.
A deviation from the MRE's assumption of 90 percent is the silver recovery for Dingelvik, which amounted to approximately 75 percent, while Henneviken showed a stronger silver recovery of at least 85 percent. Dingelvik demonstrates better recoveries at finer grinding, indicating "grind sensitivity" and potentially higher grinding costs. Positive for processability is that new mineralogical analyses from Baldersnäs confirm chalcopyrite as the dominant mineral. This means that the ore can be processed using standard methods and treated in the same plant as Dingelvik without costly adjustments. It should be emphasized, however, that the historical tests are over 40 years old and carried out on a very limited composite sample mass of only 15 kg in total (from 3 holes at Dingelvik and 10 holes at Henneviken). The results should therefore be considered preliminary. Modern, large-scale variability tests on representative drill cores from this year's drilling program (DP-01) are planned and constitute a necessary and important data point in the ongoing PEA work.
Drilling program DP-01 soon completed and capital in place
The 4,000-metre drilling program, DP-01, commenced in April 2026 with Protek Norr as drilling contractor, and at the end of June, 2,905 metres were already drilled. All drilling is expected to be completed at the end of August. The focus is on upgrading the mineralizations at Asselbyn, Henneviken, Baldersnäs, and Åsnebo to the Inferred category, as well as step-out drilling at Dingelvik. Financing for the program was secured through a directed issue of SEK 40m in April 2026 at a price of SEK 5.25 per share, with Swedish and international institutional investors participating. The issue exceeded the initially communicated volume of SEK 30m following strong demand. Additional capital will be required as the project moves toward a complete PEA foundation. As of the end of June, the company had SEK 38m in cash.