Gold-Ore Resources

View the Brochure

When people think of Canada and Sweden in tandem, most thoughts go to hockey. Both countries are renowned for producing talented players and enjoying a vigorous rivalry in international tournaments. But Sweden and Canada have more in common than only hockey. Both enjoy vast, uninhabited geography and plentiful natural resources.  The two countries are partners in many industries, such as forestry, information technology and, specifically, mining.

The Swedish district of Skellefte may not be as well known as its hockey legends, but within the mining industry it is renowned for its rich and abundant mineral deposits. This 1.9-billion-year-old volcanic arc hosts upwards of 100 polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) and lode gold deposits, 28 of which have been mined. About 700 kilometres north of Stockholm, it is home to the Bjorkdal gold mine, owned by Gold-Ore Resources Ltd, an international mining and exploration company with operations in Sweden and a management team in Vancouver, Canada.  Glen Dickson, chairman and CEO of Gold-Ore, explains, “We are operating in a very prolific mining area of Sweden called the celestial greenstone belt, which has major world class deposits.”

Gold-Ore started out as a Central American mining company, but the team found the climate made for arduous working conditions. Sweden seemed the perfect alternative, not only for its climate, but local jurisdiction that is welcoming to mining and exploration. When Gold-Ore acquired the Bjorkdal assets three years ago, the plant had all the facilities in place to produce a successful mine, such as a fully operational gold concentrating plant. Dickson continues, “When we acquired this property, we did so on the basis of the expiration potential with an operating plant on site, which was unusual.” Once equipped, the Gold-Ore team faced its first challenge, which was the testing to determine the extent of this resource. “In the past three years, we had undertaken to discover and prove up reserves, and that is what we have done.”

Those resources have proven substantial. Bjorkdal is currently producing gold from both underground and open pit operations at a rate of “40 – 42,000 ounces a year,” according to Dickson.

Combined with the abundance of Bjorkdal’s resources, the mine has multifarious advantages for Gold-Ore. “The operation we have is very clean,” says Dickson.  Mineral recover is done using an on-site “crush-grind gravity process”, which eliminates deleterious material used in alternative recovery processes. This means the tailings, or the materials leftover after the process of separating the gold from the invaluable ore, are “effectively sand, or ground up rock,” according to Dickson, and deemed non-toxic by Swedish authorities. “It has been tested for everything from radioactivity to hazardous material, and there is nothing in it at all.  They are very clean and benign tailings.” Because of this, Gold-Ore can sell their tailing as constructive material to locals.

Unique rare-earth mineral
Gold-Ore has discovered, in addition to gold, they have by-product potential in their mine. Metallurgic testing has proven the presence of a unique rare-earth mineral, named tellurium, at the Bjorkdal deposit. Belonging to the same family as oxygen and sulphur, tellurium is the ninth rarest metallic element on Earth. It is one of the most efficient minerals for catching power from the sun’s rays, and, as such, is used in the solar panel industry.

“There is a suggestion that tellurium will be in demand, and we have done a fair bit of testing to extract the tellurium from our operation. We believe we can extract and sell the tellurium.” The tellurium represents a lucrative by-product for the Gold-Ore. The benefits of this are two-fold. “Currently, not only do we not get paid for the tellurium, but we pay a small penalty for it,” says Dickson. “We are looking at taking the tellurium out and getting paid for it, burning the candle at both ends, as it were.”

Bright Future
The day after speaking to Dickson, he went off to Sweden to conduct meetings with Gold-Ore’s President and COO, Robert Wasylyshyn, and discuss the future of the Bjorkdal mine. “It is a very well understood process. We have our recoveries over 90 per cent, so we know where we are with the plant,” says Dickson.  Bjorkdal still has a (conservative) five-year mine life reserve, with “good tail”. With gold reserves, tailings and tellurium, Gold-Ore has, if you will pardon the metaphor, a gold mine on its hands.