District Metals Corp. reported on compilation work from historical exploration data at the high grade polymetallic Svärdsjö Property located in the Bergslagen Mining District in south-central Sweden. The Mining Inspectorate of Sweden (Bergsstaten) recently relinquished exploration data from Swedish mining company, Boliden, after a confidentiality period of three years.

Review of this historical data, in combination with the recently flown SkyTEM survey, has revealed several priority target areas that strongly warrant follow up work and drilling. The Svärdsjö Zn-Pb-Cu sulphide deposit is situated in the northern part of the Bergslagen Mining District. Mining in the Svärdsjö area started during the fifteenth century and the Svärdsjö deposit itself was mined from the mid-1700's until 1989, producing 1.03 Mt at 112 g/t Ag, 6.0% Zn, 2.7% Pb, 0.6% Cu and 0.4 g/t Au2.

More recent exploration drilling by Boliden discovered a continuation of high grade polymetallic mineralization at the Svärdsjö and Kompanigruvan Mines at depth and to the southwest as two separate polymetallic bodies named the Fäbodgruvan and Vilnäset zones (Figure 1). The polymetallic mineralization at these zones comprises sphalerite (zinc), galena (lead and silver), and chalcopyrite (copper and gold), which remains open in most directions. Boliden was active in the Svärdsjö area between 2009 and 2019 where their exploration activities included various soil surveys, geophysical ground surveys and 40 regional drill holes from surface (22,690 m).

The Swedish Mineral Act requires relinquishment of exploration data after dropping the exploration license with a maximum of four years confidentiality. District's review of the historical drill assay data shows several areas that exhibit potential to generate a significant mineral resource estimate with additional drilling. Numerous potential extensions from existing high grade polymetallic mineralization are evident below the Svärdsjö Mine, and at the Fäbodgruvan and Vilnäset zones, which are also supported by coincident conductive and magnetic anomalies identified from the May 2022 SkyTEM geophysical interpretation.

A recent scientific paper3 on the Svärdsjö deposit (Fahlvik et al, 2022) has provided valuable insights on the geology, mineralization style and geochemical characterization of the host succession and the surrounding zone of accompanying hydrothermally altered rocks. These observations will be implemented as exploration vectors towards polymetallic mineralization on the Svärdsjö Property.