Both in Sweden and Finland major mining and metal extraction industries have been in operation over many centuries. For much of the twentieth century these industries were primarily controlled by large Nordic companies and para-state organisations, with exploration largely driven by the need to support the existing mining and metal extraction infrastructure. As a result, the metallogenic potential of the Fennoscandian (or Baltic) Shield, which extends across much of Sweden and Finland remains under explored, in comparison to other similarly endowed Shields in Africa, Canada and Australia.
In the mid 1990’s there was a change in government policy to encourage broader based participation in the mining industry. Attracted by the potential of the Nordic Region, Dragon has now been active in this area for eight years and has the necessary local experience and projects to continue its growth.
Dragon’s strategy in the short to medium term is for production growth from the development of two production centres. At the same time it is ensuring that both centres have a highly prospective land holding that would allow each to grow into a multi-mine operation. Svartliden in Sweden was the first of these production centres to be developed in 2005, whilst Vammala in southern Finland became the second, recommencing operations in June 2007.
Longer term growth will come from opportunities advancing through the exploration pipeline. These opportunities range in status from the resource definition stage Kuusamo gold-cobalt project to the highly prospective greenfields project, Hanhimaa in northern Finland. The efforts to secure prospective and strategic land holdings around the production centres and the identification of projects for the pipeline have been greatly aided by access to the historic Outokumpu exploration data base, which contains many decades of regional and focussed exploration data encompassing much of the Nordic Region.
An aggressive exploration strategy implemented by Dragon has resulted in exploration of the areas proximal to its two operating gold mines to advance, exploration activities recommencing on the Svartliden regional holding in northern Sweden and exploration work accelerating in the Hanhimaa region in far northern Finland. A sum of A$6.5 million was spent by the group on exploration in 2007 and included a total of 21,405 metres of drilling from both surface and underground.