Bluejay Mining, a UK-listed mine development company, has reached an agreement with the European Raw Material Alliance (ERMA) to support the Greenland-based Ilmenite Project and secure supply of Dundas ilmenite for end-users within the EU.

The company said the agreement would enable a secure mining and supply chain option for titanium ore and concentrate, of which ilmenite is the core constituent for customers.

Production of titanium ore and concentrate pin Europe has traditionally been sourced from long-established hard-rock deposits in Norway and mineral sands projects in Ukraine. 

The Dundas Ilmenite Project is an independent mineral sand project not tied directly to any sulphate process titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigment producer.

Furthermore, ilmenite is also suitable for the production of slag for direct use in titanium tetrachloride, an intermediate for both chloride TiO2 pigment and titanium metal.

The development of the Dundas Ilmenite Project, coupled with the support and promotion from the ERMA, will create the ability for users within the European Union to increase the supply of this critical material and build a resilient industrial ecosystem with a territory neighbouring Europe, Bluejay Mining said.

Bo Møller Stensgaard, CEO of Bluejay Mining, said the agreement with the ERMA represents "a strong strategic partnership and network."

Stensgaard said the ERMA the underlying principles "fit well" with Bluejay's vision and philosophy for the Dundas operation and bodes well for further collaborations on the other Greenlandic and Finnish projects.

"The Dundas Ilmenite Project sets out, together with other projects in the mineral endowed country, routes for contributing to the emerging extractive industry in Greenland for the benefit of Europe and through their reach, to the wider globe," Stensgaard commented.

 "We look forward to developing further such routes and to strengthening our cooperation with ERMA."

 Massimo Gasparon, ERMA Director, commented: "It is the primary role of ERMA to secure raw materials and raw material supply chains for Europe to support industrial ecosystems within the European Union. 

 "The Dundas Ilmenite Project in Greenland fulfilled ERMA's qualification requirements.

"Bluejay operates under a solid regulatory Greenlandic environmental and social standards framework and has strong local community support which makes it a winner for European mining and manufacturing, making the European Bloc less dependent on other markets."