Due to past experiences of Avannaa field geologists with this project, AES were hired by Ironbark Zinc during 2023 to provide recommendations on resource upgrades and regional exploration, and geotechnical opinion on past and potential future exploration activities.
The project is an advanced stage Sed-Ex deposit with a JORC-compliant Mineral Resource of 85MT @ 4.7% Zn and 0.5% Pb, including an Ore Reserve of 49MT @ 4.8%Zn and 0.5% Pb. This would have a 20-year mine life at 3.3MT per annum, with2.5MT Zn produced during the Life of Mine. It is situated in the High Arctic which comes with exploration and mining challenges regarding costs and logistics.

Using Ironbark’s extensive dataset, AES were able to suggest targets with a high potential for upgrading the current resource through extending pre-existing high grade zones via drilling.In addition, Avannaa suggested that Ironbark focus future exploration activity in the area on multiple geophysical anomalies occurring in areas with limited drilling but where rock chip sampling returned anomalous geochemical values.
Promising regional targets and potential were evaluated using the regional geology dataset and other known Zn occurrences in northern Greenland. Based on this, and previous work in the region by GEUS, there is ahigh probability of Sed-Ex or MVT deposits hosting >2MT Zn in the basin.