The Trælen deposit lies on the northern tip of the Skaland peninsula and consists of two main and related lithological units. The tectono-stratigraphically lower unit is a banded gneiss with alternating biotite rich and granitic bands (locally termed “Trælen Gneiss”) and an upper unit that consists of amphibolitic gneiss. These are heterogeneous hornblende gneisses with graphite horizons, possibly metamorphic greywacke and calciferous rocks. Both units contain granitic orthogneisses, possibly a result of partial melting of the surrounding rocks. Quartz diorites and different types of pegmatites occur as well, forming discontinuous intrusions.

The graphite found in the upper unit is assumed to be primarily syngenetic and later exposed to tectonic activity leading to its present textural, mineralogical, geochemical and geometric characteristics.

The mineralised horizon is isoclinally folded and the thickest, most continuous mineralisation occurs as lens shaped bodies oriented parallel to the main fold axis. This horizon contains the most economically interesting instances of graphite at Trælen, and can vary between centimetres and 12-14m thick. There is minor graphite found in faults and along shears. There are minor exploration targets to the south and west of the current Trælen Deposit which may represent either a further fold of the same horizon or a second mineralised horizon.

The rocks in the area have been exposed to at least three phases of folding and deformation with the last folding phase responsible at Trælen with a fold axis dipping 30 to 90 degrees towards the west–northwest. The existence of hypersthene, signs of partial melting and migmatisation, and the occurrences of course grained flaky graphite, all indicate high temperature metamorphism.

The thicker, domainable zones of the graphite mineralisation are named the Boye North Shoot, Boye South Shoot (termed for their relative positions to each other),the VLF or North East Shoot and an unnamed second northeast shoot (“NE2”). The North East shoot was named as such due to occupying a location to the northeast of the mine workings, where it was identified at the 85mRL and above.

The Skaland Graphite Operation is located in northern Norway on the island of Senja. Skaland Graphite AS formerly extracted graphite ore from the Skaland mine which is located directly alongside the existing processing and port infrastructure, but since 2007, ore to the plant has been sourced from the nearby Traelen Mine.

Mining is currently being conducted by long hole open stoping in a bottom up sequence. Future mining is assumed to be long hole open stoping in a top down sequence.

A mining contractor has been engaged for down-dip development at Trælen to access additional known resources at Trælen beneath the already mined out up-dip resources of the deposit, following an initial Life of Mine (“LOM”) based on the 2020 Mineral Resource Statement, targeting resources between levels +5m to -115m (below sea level).

The deposit is open at depth beyond the planned development levels and there are also several promising side lenses that require further drilling.

Down-dip development waste will be backfilled into the current mining void which will allow safe access to further up-dip resources and eliminate mine waste disposal outside the Trælen mountain. The mining concept is essentially a mirror of the current up-dip mining, changing from bottom-up to top-down progress. The level height will be 20m with ore extraction from the bottom of each level.

Plant currently operates at 60% capacity. An increase to 85% utilisation rate increases production to 15-16kpta

Crushed ore from the mine is dumped into a ROM ore bin and conveyed to an autogenous mill followed by a front-end, open-ended milling circuit before processing via a three stage flotation and cleaner circuit with multiple sub-stages in each stage.