Exploration
targets

Nickel deposits in southern Juva

Several nickel-bearing mafic-ultramafic intrusions occur in southern Juva and surrounding areas. One small deposit was mined during 1970, the Kitula deposit in Puumala.The bedrock is characterized by a granulite facies metamorphism postdating the mafic magmatism. Metamorphism has changed the primary mineralogy and fabric of the intrusive mafic-ultramafic rocks so that they were not identified until the late 1970s. The largest intrusion bodies, later identified and mapped are around four kilometres in length. The nickel deposits of Enonkoski, gold deposits of Rantasalmi and copper deposits of Virtasalmi are found some 40-60 km north of the southern Juva area (Fig. 1).

The NS trending, around 15 km long Pihlajasalo-Heiskalanmäki belt includes four known deposits/showings and boulder indications of additional deposits. The most potential deposits within the belt so far are Pihlajasalo and Heiskalanmäki. From all the deposits, located so far in the southern Juva area the most important one is the Niinimäki deposit, east of the Pihlajasalo-Heiskalanmäki belt (Fig. 2).

Suomen Malmitutkimus Oy has made an application for reservation notification on Pihlajasalo-Heiskalanmäki belt and Niinimäki.

More data: Niinimäki, Pihlajasalo, Heiskalanmäki.

Nickel deposits
Figure 1. Nickel deposits (green squares) on the metamorphic map of southern Savo. Also shown gold (yellow), copper (purple) and zinc deposits (blue). Nickel targets of Suomen Malmitutkimus Oy outlined by the red rim. Figure produced from the GTK MDaE map service.
Pihlajasalo-Heiskalanmäki
Figure 2. Nickel deposits (green squares) in the Pihlajasalo-Heiskalanmäki belt and the Niinimäki nickel deposit. Mafic-(ultramafic) intrusions by black. Borders of the reservation application by red dashed line. Bedrock map as background. Figure produced from the GTK MDaE map service 14.04.2020.