The explorer and developer is not fully walking away from the assets, as the deal makes it a significant shareholder Metals One, a battery metals miner.
Bluejay is also keeping its Outokumpu copper gold cobalt project and it will continue exploring around the historical Hammaslahti copper mine in Finland.
“The Paltamo and Rautavaara projects have the potential to replicate the giant adjacent Talvivaara nickel-zinc-copper-cobalt mine”, Bluejay chief executive Bo Møller Stensgaard said in the statement.
As the demand for nickel from electric vehicle batteries is expected to increase ten-fold by 2030 from 2019 levels, concerns around the environmentally-conscious supply of the metal are also on the rise.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) boss Elon Musk is trying to mitigate that impact a jump in nickel mining by offering a “giant contract for a long period of time” to any firm able to extract it in an efficient, environmentally sustainable manner.
Top miners have aggressively been acquiring nickel projects in the last year, with Canada’s Noront Resources (TSX-V: NOT) currently at the centre of a bidding war between BHP (ASX, LON, NYSE: BHP) and Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Wyloo Metals.
Just last week, BHP sealed a nickel supply deal with Tesla, as part of its push to secure a slice of the battery metals pie.
Bluejay’s flagship asset is the Dundas ilmenite project on the northwest coast of Greenland, 80 kms north of the town of Qaanaaq.
After obtaining the exploitation permit in December, the junior has focused on securing financing ahead of commencing commercial production
The permit, valid for an initial 30-year period, allows Bluejay to produce 440,000 tonnes of ilmenite annually over an initial mine life of 11 years. The mineral is considered the most important ore of titanium, used commercially in the production of paint, adhesives and personal care products such as toothpaste.