VULCAN resources has announced significant nickel sulphide hits in Finland over the past few weeks, however in a week of record copper prices it announced a 120 per cent increase in the size of its Kylylahti copper resource deposit, near the Eastern Finnish town of Outokumpu.Vulcan said mining consultant SRK Consulting’s new resource estimate for Kylylahti was 7.4 million tonnes at 5.3 per cent copper equivalent.Shares in Vulcan moved 20 per cent, or 7 cents, to 44 cents on the back of the announcement and have climbed 20 cents in the past two weeks. In addition, the price of copper increased to a seven-year record of $US3,800/t last week.Vulcan said the in-ground value of the deposit now exceeded $2 billion, with 68 per cent of the resource moving from the inferred to the indicated status.The upgraded resource estimate means plans the West Perth-based company had for a 300,000t a year processing plant have now been shelved and new process designs are being made for a 10-year, 500,000t/year operation. A pre-feasibility study is expected to be completed in September.
