Taivaljärvi Silver Mine - History

Picture. Ore specimen from Taivaljärvi.

When the mining permit for the silver mine in Taivaljärvi expired in 2005 Sotkamo Silver (before the change of the name: Silver Resources) applied for and was assigned to the exploration permit for the area, and founded the company in 2006. Taivaljärvi Silver Mine has a history that stretches back to 1980 when researchers from the University of Oulu found silver on the shore of the Lake Taivaljärvi. The local paper company Kajaani Oy applied for exploration permit in 1980 and conducted exploration from 1981 to 1988. The first exploration hole drilled showed a one hundred meters long cutting with a silver ore body.

Kajaani Oy and Outokumpu Oyj made a joint venture agreement in 1988 for the development of the silver deposit and started to build a tunnel down to the mineralization. A 2,6 kilometres long tunnel and approximately 350 metres long ventilation shaft were built between 1988 and 1990 which was approximately 60 million SEK invested. After conducting a feasibility study and technical design analyses for mining in 1991, the project was put down due to low metal prices. Silver price at that time was approximately 4 USD per troy ounce. The price had been between 5 and 10 USD per troy ounce since the project started. Silver prices stabilized at more than 5 USD per troy ounce in 2004, but by then both Kajaani and Outokumpu had changed their focus away from industrial mining. Outokumpu canceled exploration and project development activities within their own mining projects following a strategic decision to dismantle all mining activities in the late 1990's.

Discovery of the deposit

The first indications of the Ag-Zn-Au-Pb mineralization at Taivaljärvi site were found in 1980 when a research group from the University of Oulu found several Ag-Zn-Au-Pb anomalous glacial boulders along the dry shoreline of the lake Taivaljärvi. The University of Oulu exploration team followed up boulder indications by percussion drilling and obtained samples from the bedrock-moraine interface together with small rock chip samples from the bedrock. Results from the percussion drill sampling campaign revealed the sub cropping mineralization ca. 500 meters up ice direction from the boulder discovery site. Diamond drilling followed up the percussion drill sampling, and the very first diamond drill hole intersected the mineralization in spring 1981.

Kajaani Oy Enters the Play

In October 1980, Kajaani Oy secured mineral rights over the Taivaljärvi deposit by a claim reservation. In January 1982 two claims were granted, Taivaljärvi 1 and 2. They cover the today known Taivaljärvi Ag-Zn-Au-Pb deposit and its immediate surroundings. A successful fast-track exploration was followed by a diamond drilling campaign during 1981-1989. The surface drill campaign was successful in delineating a 40 metres to 100 meters wide mineralization which has a strike extent of 550 metres and continues to at least 650 metres below the surface.

Sotkamo Silver starts the Development again

In 2005 earlier owners let the mining concession lapse. The same year the owners of Sotkamo Silver Oy applied for a claim reservation over the property. In 2006 Sotkamo Silver applied for the previously presented claims over the Taivaljärvi deposit and they were issued in May 2007. Since 2006  has put its effort into the development of the Taivaljärvi deposit with a clear vision to start Finland's first silver mine in late 2013.

The first NI 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate was completed in 2007.

In March 2009 Sotkamo Silver Oy has filed the official documents regarding the application of a Mining Concession Permit for the Taivaljärvi Ag-Zn-Pb-Au-deposit at The Ministry of Employment and The Economy. The Mining Concession Permit is approved April 2011.