Beowulf Mining plc (LON:BEM) Chief Executive Officer Kurt Budge caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the fifth claim reservation added to their graphite assets in Finland, their Kallak project & the wait for the government decision and plans for the coming months
Q1: First off, could you provide an update on your announcement today regarding Beowulf’s graphite business in Finland?
A1: Yes, we’ve announced that we’ve added a fifth claim reservation to our graphite assets in Finland so this has consolidated our position in what we believe is a prospective Kolari district in the North of Finland and is adjacent to the Kolari claim reservation that we already had in the portfolio. We’ve also completed Slingram geophysics surveys on two of our other projects, Haapamaki and Piippumaki, and that data is now being analysed by our consultants GeoVista AB in Sweden. We’re going to use the results of analysis to define conductors which we’ll then go back and visually check when the snow’s thawed and the site’s cleared, probably in April and May, with a view to identifying drill targets for drilling later on in the year.
Q2: Moving on to Kallak then, are you moving your attention away from your Swedish magnetite project because of the delays experienced in permitting there?
A2: No, Beowulf Mining’s attention firmly remains on Kallak and advancing the project. We’ve got a very experienced team in Finland led by Rasmus Blonqvist, who joined us when we acquired Fennoscandian Resources, and so we can really push forward with our graphite plans which we’ve tried to provide shareholders with some information on today, whilst still doing all the work we need to do in Sweden to set Kallak up for a positive decision by the government on our exploitation concession.
Q3: Now we see from yesterday’s announcement on Kallak that you’ve written again to the Swedish government, any comment on that situation there?
A3: Yes, Beowulf Mining has written this second letter because it’s now over 6 months since the mining inspector recommended that the exploitation concession for Kallak be ordered and we had no reply to our first letter which we sent on 18th November last year.
So we’ve again presented the arguments for why the exploitation concession should be granted, we’ve submitted a high quality application which I’ve always said has met the requirements of the Swedish regulations, what we’ve also laid out in our letter is that, within the application, the environmental impact assessment we provided, we studied all the aspects of future mining operation so whether that be overburden storage mounds, the situation of processing plants, transport routes. We still did all those aspects and their environmental effects and that was all contained within our environmental impact assessment, as well as the effects of the co-existence of mining operations with reindeer herding businesses that are local to us.
So we feel very confident that we have done all of the work and where there were concerns that were raised such as one specific transport route that the County Administrative Board for Norbotten raised in October 2014, we nailed that issue on the head and we said that we would eliminate the transport route that was causing them concern from our future plans. So as far as I know, since then we’ve not had any further issues that have been arranged and as I’ve said to you before Giles, last year was a good year in terms of the project and the momentum in the project because we got support from the County Administrative Board and we got the mining inspector recommending that the concession should be awarded.
So I hope, given all this, that shareholders can appreciate why I’ve been optimistic that Beowulf Mining will get that positive decision at some point and I had thought it would be sooner than now but I think I’ve underestimated the Swedish government’s workload, that they may not necessarily be prioritising our application. That being said if the project has the potential to create the jobs and economic growth in the North of Sweden that the Kallak does, and that has been shown to be the case by the County administrative Board’s economic analysis and others, the Jokkmokk commune have done their own economic analysis, you would expect that a positive decision should come quickly so that we can move forward with our stakeholder in Jokkmokk on advancing Kallak. We are all waiting for a decision by the government and the North of Sweden needs jobs and economic activity so I still remain hopeful.
Q4: Now Beowulf Mining plc seems to have had a busy first quarter, what are your plans for the coming months?
A4: It’s been quite a fast and furious first quarter so with the acquisition of Fennoscandian Resources, having the General Meeting and getting much needed support from our shareholders for our plans and giving us the ability to raise money and then successfully raising £1.5 million. So near-term, the focus remains on Kallak and getting the decision made by the Swedish government on the exploitation concession, with that in hand it would be our plan to look the exploration target on Kallak to boost the resources. Also we want to put the foot to the floor with regards to trying to find a strategic partner to come in at the asset level on Kallak and work with us on developing Kallak and its next stage of project development and that will also be giving us the opportunity to then get all of that back on the ground in Jokkmokk could be working with our stakeholders which I’m looking forward to and sharing our plans and ideas for the future. With the graphite, as I said we’ve got the study work to come back from GeoVista with regards to the work we’ve done on Haapamaki and Piippumaki, that will then inform us for our next stage of field work and then following on from that we will be moderate drilling programmes for both of those assets and we’re also working with our FennoFlake partners with regards to joint plans that we have on each of our graphite assets for this year. In the RNS that we’ve put out today on the graphite, we’ve also informed shareholders that we’re having discussions with other industry partners who are further down the value chain, experienced in graphite processing and also markets, deep knowledge in both of those areas, and exploring with them areas where we can potentially collaborate so that we can build our graphite business in an ambitious timescale.
