3rd MAY 2007. Agricola Resources plc ("Agricola"), the PLUS-traded mineral exploration company involved with projects in Sweden and Finland, is pleased to announce that four new exploration licences have been registered with the Swedish state mining authority, Bergsstaten and three exploration licences have been registered with the Finnish state mining authority, Ministry of Trade & Industry (MTI).
In Sweden each of the prospects were discovered by large exploration programs for uranium by the Swedish Geological Survey in the1970 - 80s. For the selection of the prospects in Sweden Agricola has had full access to available drill cores and data files stored at the Swedish Geological Survey ("SGU") office at Mala, Northern Sweden.
The four licence areas in Sweden are called Manakjaure 1, and Geddaur 1, 2, and 3 The Geddaur claims join each other and together they form a large survey area of a total of 122 sq km. They are located within the municipality of Arjeplog, about 20 - 40 km to the east and south east of the municipality centre, in the Norrbotten county, northern Sweden. The Manakjaure area covers 5.5 sq km and is located further to the northeast of the Geddaur claims within the municipality of Jokkmokk in the Norrbotten county.
The Swedish registered applications, Manakjaure 1 and Geddaur 1 were granted by the Swedish Mines Inspectorate on April 24, 2007. It is anticipated that the other outstanding Swedish licence applications will be granted in due course.
The three licence areas in Finland are called Kuusjaervi 1, 2 and 3. They are of about 1 sq km size each in accordance with the Finnish Mining Act. They are located around the Paukkajavaara uranium mine area in the Eno county of Eastern Karelia, Finland. Each of the licence area covers strong soil radon anomalies obtained by Agricola in detailed soil surveys in the region during 2006. (Agricola news release, January 18, 2007). The granting process for the Finnish exploration licences is in progress.
Because of information on the possible forthcoming extensions of National Park borders causing restrictions of mineral exploration in the Energy Ridge area in the Salla county in northern Finland, Agricola has decided not to proceed with any exploration licence applications in this region.
Contact :
Dr. Robert Young, Chairman
Agricola Resources plc
Tel: +44 (0) 1353 649 701
Technical background:
The use of radon gas detectors to identify uranium mineralisation is well known and has been in use since the 1960s. Because radon is a gas, it has much greater mobility than uranium and radium, which are fixed in the solid matter in rocks and soils. Radon migrates to the surface by escaping into fractures and openings and into the pore spaces between grains of soil. The ease and efficiency with which radon moves in the pore space or fracture effects how much radon is detected at the surface. If radon is able to move easily in the pore space, then it can travel a great distance before it decays, and is therefore detectable at the surface above a uranium occurrence.
The Alpha Track method uses a small cellulose-nitrate film attached to the inner side of a 0.5 litre size plastic sample cup. The film is not affected by light or any other form of electromagnetic radiation. The film is only sensitive to alpha particles emitted by daugther products of uranium (mainly radon).
The Alpha Track Detectors are buried in holes dug in the soil to approximately 50-75 cms depth. The holes are then tightly filled with soil and left in place for 30 days after which they were retrieved and returned to Alpha Track for processing. The processing of the detectors entails the etching of the nitro-cellulose film. This etching processes highlights the imprints caused by the alpha particles when they impinge on the film. The tracks are counted optically and expressed as "Track count per square millimetre (T/mm2)". These counts are proportional to the radon gas levels at the sample site.
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