Photo Gallery

The Photo Gallery is here to complement our newsletters downloadable from the Newsletters Page of the main Angus & Ross website. Under each picture there is a link to a high-resolution version of the photo suitable for high quality printing. The photographs are for free distribution but please always quote 'Coypright of Black Angel Mining Ltd' when reproducing them. All photographs were taken during the 2005 field season (in July and September) by members of the Black Angel team, Frank van der Stijl and Tim Daffern.

Please note that the full coverage of the Black Angel Project is now carried by the main website of Angus & Ross plc. Go to the Black Angel section of the A&R website >>

 

Room with a view...

The view from the mine entrance towards the deep sea fjord and and the open ocean. The mine stretches from this point for 4km into the mountain behind.

Deep water right next to the mine means that it can receive vessels up to 20,000 tons DWT, thus eliminating transhipments of concentrate.

When the mine was in operation this entrance was linked to a peninsula visible below with a cable car with a single span of 1,500m above the fjord.

We are checking the option of reinstalling the cable car, but it seems that building a road around the fjord and accessing the mine from the back makes much more sense, as it allows for easier and more thorough exploration and mining of the small satellite orebodies on top of the plateau.

(High resolution version here)

Blast from the past...
Fifteen years minus one month exactly - Idoff Wall Ström inside the mine on 20 July 2005 nearly 15 years after he stopped working here as the crusher operator. (High resolution version here)

 

Power to the people...

Our team found the electric distribution system inside the mine in excellent condition. There was hardly any rust, as the air in the mine is very dry. Many other elements of the infrastructure were also in a servicable condition. (High resolution version here)

Not quite a closed book...

A room full of documents inside the mine. Nobody has looked at them for 15 years. Advances of geological science and mining engineering methods mean that we now look at old data in a new light. A nearly complete dossier of Black Angel mine documents is kept in the cellar of the Geological Survey of Greenland and Denmark in Copenhagen. Our team spends weeks on end there feeding them into computers.

(High resolution version here)

 

A perfect pillar

There are around 1,000 pillars similar to this one left in the mine. Many contain significant quantities of high grade ore (the black band on this one contains around 45% Zn). We intend to remove a significant proportion of the pillars not needed for the roof support and recover around 1 million tons of high grade ore.

(High resolution version here)

 

Looking up...

Malik Papis looks at yet another pillar earmarked for possible extraction. The pillars come in all shapes and sizes and not all are worth taking (not enough ore) or can't be taken for reasons of rock mechanics (roof support).

We are considering a backfill method of disposal of the tailings - i.e. making the waste rock into a paste, which solidifies when put back into the void. This soulution strengthens the roof and allows us to take out more pillars.

Some companies (e.g. Doe Run in the USA) derive up to 45% of their production from pillar removal and process significant volumes of ore obtained in this way (~1.8m tonnes p.a.)

(High resolution version here)

 

Barren, but not quiet...

The top of the Black Angel Mountain buzzing with activity - unloading the equipment prior to the mine visit. The mountain top forms a plateau, which should enable us to build a road around the fjord to connect with the existing 6km-long tunnel under the Nunngarut mountain (next picture). (High resolution version here)

Black Angel II hideout ???

The Nunngarut Mountain across the Affarlikassaa Fjord just opposite the Black Angel Mountain. Two small orebodies (N1 and N2) have been discovered (and mined) there in the past as well as some smaller 'showings'. Can it possibly contain another Black Angel? Note the flat lying strata characteristic also for the Black Angel mine iteslf. Our licence areas cover all the marble mountains around the old mine (a total of 187 sq km) and this mountain is one of the prime targets for our exploration programme. (High resolution version here)

 

The Promised Land...?

You could almost think it is Sinai if it wasn't for the ice... but this may well be the Promised Land. The area around the South Lakes (some 5km SE from the mine) seems to be very propspective and previous drillings intersected ore grades as high as 44% Zn.

The area is realtively flat, which should enable building a spur road around the lakes that would serve both the exploration activity and possible mining of small orebodies.

During September 2005 our team covered on foot most of the area around the lakes, identifying some of the old drill holes and making some unusual discoveries... Read on.

(High resolution version here)

How flat is flat?

Tim Daffern, a mining engineer from Wardell Armstrong International asesses the suitabilty of the terrain around the South Lakes for a spur road leading the the Ark showing.

Ice lollies...

The ice cap, which covers most of the Greenland land mass, spreads its glacier tenticles towards the sea. But many are now shadows of their former selves, mailny due to the global warming. The South Lakes Glacier has retreated some 750m in the last 50 years (we know from the 1954 aerial photos) and in the last 15 years (since the mine's closure) some 250m. Frank and Tim were probably the first geologists to visit the area formerly under 60m of ice since it melted. Their long walk was worth the effort...

(High resolution version here)

... and carrot cakes

The retreating glacier uncovered a large outcrop of massive sulphide (zinc and lead ore) some 250m long (and continuing under the glacial till) and 3-7m wide. Looking like a brownish carrot cake it makes a mouth-watering sight for any geologist. This ore promises to be a very high grade. Samples taken during the visit are being tested in the lab now. The outcrop is the prime exploration target for the 2006 drilling programmne. [Our geologist Frank van der Stijl documents the discovery] (High resolution version here)