OVERTURINGEN JOURNAL
By JOHN TAGLIABUE


OVERTURINGEN, Sweden - It was a lousy blueberry season in 2007, said Siv Wiik, 70, one of a pair of Swedish grandmothers now credited with discovering what experts say may be one of the richest gold deposits in Europe. “That year it was too cold in the spring, so there were few berries,” she said.

Berry picking is a serious business to Mrs. Wiik, who was born in this village of 171, and her friend, Harriet Svensson, 69. For 40 years the two, widows with children and grandchildren, have explored every patch of field and forest clearing in the region, hunting for mushrooms and wild berries - blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cloudberries.

But the women are also amateur geologists. They never leave home for a stroll in forests or fields without their geologists’ hammers, with their 12-centimeter handles, and their magnifying eyepieces, dangling from ribbons around their necks.

So in that terrible August when the blueberry crop failed, they decided to poke around for minerals. They went to a place called Sorkullen, far down an unpaved logging road, where trees had recently been felled, upending the earth and exposing rock to the air. Using their hammers, they cleared soil from around the stones, digging for about six hours, deeper and deeper, until they found a rock with a dull glimmer.

The women phoned Arne Sundberg, of the Geological Survey of Sweden in Uppsala, who came the following day. “When he looked, he thought something was wrong with his eyepiece,” said Mrs.Svensson, laughing. Analysis showed that the stone contained more than 23 grams of gold per ton; most active mines in Sweden yield less than 5 grams.

The women entered a sample in an annual geological competition run by Mr.Sundberg. “You must find something that’s new and unusual, that looks promising for the future,” Mr.Sundberg said by telephone. “It could be a new mine, not just gold, but something new. It was the first time the ladies entered.”

Needless to say, they won.

They proceeded to obtain the rights for a large area around the find, then entered into negotiations, alone and without lawyers, with about 20 mining companies from Sweden and abroad, finally choosing Hansa Resources, of Vancouver, Canada.

This month, Hansa began boring at the site to obtain samples to send to Vancouver for analysis. The windfall for the women has until now been modest. Hansa paid the women about $125,000 for the mining rights, and if a second round of boring is authorized this fall, the company will pay an additional $225,000. But the women have also been given a 20 percent stake in any future mining activities, which could yield a bonanza.

“By then I’ll be out in the churchyard,” Mrs.Wiik said with a laugh.