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Drilling starts as the search for base metals ramps up in Aberdeenshire

There is a growing market for metals such as nickel and copper.

Drilling gets under way on the site off known nickel deposits at Arthrath in Aberdeenshire. Image: Aberdeen Minerals
Drilling gets under way on the site off known nickel deposits at Arthrath in Aberdeenshire. Image: Aberdeen Minerals

An Aberdeenshire firm’s quest to find valuable base metals in the area has moved up a notch with the start of drilling at Arthrath, near Ellon.

Arthrath is home to the largest known nickel deposit in the UK and a safeguarded site for mineral development.

Drilling will verify and expand on activity carried out there by Rio Tinto in the 1970s.

Our drilling programme represents an important milestone towards developing domestic mineral potential right here in north-east Scotland.”

Fraser Gardiner, chief executive, Aberdeen Minerals

Ellon-based Aberdeen Minerals revealed last month it had raised about £1.1 million from investors by issuing new shares.

The company said it would use the cash to further its work exploring for and evaluating deposits of nickel and copper – metals seen as essential to Britain’s energy transition – as well as cobalt, palladium and platinum, which are on a UK list of “critical minerals”.

Growing market for base metals

Announcing the commencement of drilling, Aberdeen Minerals chief executive Fraser Gardiner said: “The transition to renewable energy and a net-zero economy will require large increases in the global production of nickel, copper and cobalt.

“With UK industry and green jobs relying entirely on overseas supply chains for these critical raw materials, our drilling programme represents an important milestone towards developing domestic mineral potential right here in north-east Scotland.”

Aberdeen Minerals CEO Fraser Gardiner. Image: Aberdeen Minerals

The drilling programme is being carried out by specialist contractor Priority Drilling UK using a single, “small footprint” rig.

The mechanical drilling method bores a small hole, no greater than 2.5 inches wide into the bedrock.

A cylindrical “core” of rock is then extracted for geological study and testing.

Six boreholes planned for now

The drilling is expected to pave the way for new and detailed geological, mineralogical and rock chemistry data to be collected and modelled, and higher-grade nickel-copper-cobalt mineralised zones to be investigated.

Six boreholes are planned in the current phase of work, which is expected to run between two to three months.

Privately-owned Aberdeen Minerals has secured exploration agreements with landowners in a variety of north-east locations.

Land around Ellon, Balmedie, New Deer, Methlick and Maud is being studied by the firm in the search for base metals.

Other locations include Pitmedden, Oldmeldrum, Tarves and a swathe of land north-west of Huntly.

Heliborne surveys in Aberdeenshire took place last autumn. Image: Aberdeen Minerals

The start of drilling follows the first modern airborne geophysical study of the region by international specialist SkyTEM Surveys.

The helicopter surveys last autumn hit a hitch when scanning equipment hit a powerline. More than 1,000 homes in Balmedie were without electricity for a spell.

Many geologists believe the north-east is rich in mineral resources, including metals that will be in high demand by battery-makers amid growing demand for electric vehicles and other low-carbon technologies.

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