District Metals Puts a US$7.66 Billion Price Tag on the Viken Mine's Value to Sweden

District Metals has put a number on what its Viken deposit could mean for Sweden — and it comes from outside the usual mine-study ladder. In a July 22 news release recapped on The KE Report on July 23, president and CEO Garrett Ainsworth walked through the company's Economic Impact Study (EIS), prepared by BDO, the accounting firm District Metals retained to take the numbers from the Viken preliminary economic assessment and spell out the economic, social, and strategic benefits for everyone outside the company.

The headline figure: a conceptual 13-year Phase 1 mine at Viken would deliver about US$7.66 billion to the Swedish economy. Ainsworth framed what sits behind it. The PEA (Preliminary Economic Assessment — an early, low-certainty economic study that sits below pre-feasibility and feasibility work) contemplates mining just 3% of the Viken mineral resource estimate over those 13 years. "This is not just a one-off, this could keep happening potentially every 13 years," he said, pointing to room for successive phases at a deposit he sizes at 4.3 billion tons.

## What the study counts

An EIS is not a standard part of the mining study ladder, and Ainsworth argued more companies should commission one because locals too often feel overlooked by projects near them. Among the components he highlighted from the breakdown:

- About US$1.6 billion in corporate taxes. - About US$200 million in income tax from direct and indirect employment. - Roughly 355 direct full-time jobs plus 710 indirect — 1,065 in total. - About US$1.5 billion in additional capital investment and operating spend.

The study also details a payout mechanism investors rarely encounter: the Swedish state mineral fee, which Ainsworth described as a gross royalty of about 0.2% on production, split roughly 25% to the Swedish state and 75% to landowners. On that basis, he said, landowners would collect about US$22 million over the 13-year Phase 1 — income he argued compares favorably with the hay and forestry that dominate local land use, and a direct answer to landowner concerns that they would "get nothing."

## The social and political case

The EIS is not a mandatory part of a Swedish permit application, Ainsworth acknowledged, but he expects it to help regulators and policymakers see what the project could bring. BDO's presentation is due to anchor meetings with municipalities and landowners starting in September.

His social argument is local. The county, he said, has a high unemployment rate and little industry, and the project's jobs would let people live and work in the region instead of leaving for opportunities elsewhere. He rejected the fly-in-fly-out concern on the same grounds: the area is well connected, not remote. On labor supply, he described Sweden's mining sector as deep, citing a domestic equipment and services industry built around the country's large existing mines.

## What comes next

With the EIS done, attention turns back to drilling. Ainsworth said the company needs to drill Target Areas A and B at Viken before proceeding to a pre-feasibility study (PFS — the engineering study between a PEA and a final feasibility study). If mineralization proves thicker or better in those areas, the eventual project focus could shift toward them. He said the strong geophysical signature at Target Area A from the company's mobile MT surveys — a geophysical method that maps the subsurface — is a key reason to drill first: the surveys were flown to make sure whatever gets advanced sits on the shallowest, thickest alum shale, in woodland, and away from the lake.

The schedule he laid out: drilling on the company's other alum shale properties runs to the end of August, followed by a September pause for moose hunting season, with Viken drilling starting early to mid-October. Airborne mobile MT surveys are also flying over mineral licenses staked late last year, meant to enlarge the alum shale portfolio and generate more targets for coming seasons. The exploration goal, he said, is another Viken-type deposit: even a shallow, thick 130-million-ton body would match the tonnage contemplated in the June 2026 PEA.

He put the company's spend at roughly 60% on Viken, about 35% on the alum shale properties, and about 5% on groundwork at non-alum shale uranium projects, which could be drilled next year depending on how the uranium market develops. District Metals trades on the TSX Venture Exchange as DMX, on the OTCQX as DMXCF, and on Nasdaq First North as DMXSE SDB.