Developer and explorer Karelian Diamond Resources is expanding its exploration programme in Northern Ireland into nickel, copper and platinum, the company announced on Thursday, stating that it had applied for two licences covering about 500 km2 adjacent to its existing KDR-1 licence.
The applications follow results received from the company’s stream sediment sampling programme in its KDR-1 licence. The results showed indicator minerals, including anomalous amounts of chromite, forsterite olivine and metamorphosed/magmatic massive sulphide indicator minerals, which are indicative of the presence of nickel/copper/platinum mineralisation.
Karelian has combined the results with other geological and geochemical data, including the Northern Ireland TELLUS survey and, in the company’s view, it supports the possibility of nickel/copper/platinum mineralisation in the area.
“It is not unknown for nickel/copper/platinum mineralisation to be discovered during the course of a diamond exploration programme, the most well-known example being the Voisey Bay Nickel discovery in Canada, and we are optimistic that this could be true here,” comments chairperson Professor Richard Conroy.
He also mentioned the increasingly high demand for nickel, owing to its crucial importance to energy transition, and the metal’s short supply, which was further aggravated by the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
The conflict and ensuing sanctions have played havoc with global supply chains, sending prices soaring across commodities markets. On Tuesday, the London Metal Exchange intervened to calm the nickel market after prices rocketed in a matter of hours to records of over $100 000/t. It had been trading at about $45 000/t in the runup to the war.
Russia supplies nearly 10% of world nickel needs and also is a major producer of natural gas used to generate electricity that powers production of metals such as aluminium and zinc.
“I look forward very much to the expansion of the company’s exploration programme into nickel/copper/platinum,” said Conroy.