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LITHOEN

Material

Talvivaara black shale ore

The nickel-zinc-copper-cobalt sulphide ore of the Talvivaara deposit, hosted in black shale and characterised by the survey as large in tonnage and relatively low in grade — the combination that decided which process could work it.

Classification

material class
ORE_FEED
physical form
SOLID

How this record is known

1
Settled consensus
Cited as the accepted position of the discipline.

1 of 1 claims on this page cite at least one registered source. Counts describe how each statement is known, not how likely it is to be true.

What Lithoen records

Each claim states how it is known and cites its evidence.

Establishedlarge tonnage, relatively low grade; conventional extraction judged unsuitable, bio-heap leaching found suitable

Reported for this deposit

The Geological Survey of Finland characterises the Talvivaara material as large in tonnage but relatively low in grade, and reports that this combination led to the conclusion, at the time of discovery, that conventional metal extraction techniques would not work it — and that bio-heap leaching was later found suitable instead. What decided the route was the character of the feed rather than the metal it carried.

  • assertion basis: SOURCE_REPORTED
  • definition basis: The survey's own characterisation of the resource and its account of which extraction approach suited it.
  • locality: Talvivaara, eastern Finland.
  • temporal basis: As reported in a 2012 volume; the judgement about conventional techniques was made at the time of discovery in 1977.
  • assumption: This records what a survey volume reported about suitability. It is not a comparison of process economics, for which the volume gives no cost, no recovery and no comparator.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: (ed.) 2012 Primary authority

Record last updated 2026-09-11. Corrections follow the published corrections policy; superseded claims are retained, never silently edited.