Last checked at 
LONDON (Alliance News) - Kodal Minerals PLC Monday said it has been granted three new exploration licences in western Norway, linked to the historic Grimeli copper mine.
The mineral development and exploration company said the new licences cover a 30 square kilometre area including two previously producing copper mines known as the Grimeli mine and the smaller Vågendal mine.
The Grimeli mine produced high grade copper ore up until 1920 while the Vågendal mine was mined between 1871 and 1880.
The Norwegian Geological Survey completed surface geophysics over the copper mines in 1979 and 1981 and calculated non-compliant estimates of roughly 1.5 million tonnes of ore at Grimeli and 700,000 tonnes at Vågendal.
The company said it will now undertake a work programme over the summer to re-enter the historic copper mines in order to complete mapping and channel sampling, while it will also carry out ground geophysics in order to trace mineralisation between the two mines.
"We believe these copper mines to be prospective based on the NGU surveys and look forward to updating shareholders once we have further investigated the geophysics," Chief Executive Luke Bryan said in a statement.
Kodal Minerals shares were up 7.3% to 0.440 pence, putting it amongst the top AIM All-Share risers on Monday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
