US$310m payday scoped for Latitude 66 Finland gold, cobalt project

Latitude 66 managing director Grant Coyle said: “Latitude 66 is extremely pleased with the strong economics demonstrated by the KSB scoping study. The gold project has significant upside potential due to highly prospective nearby exploration potential and low capex expansion options. It also provides a unique opportunity to support a sustainable supply of cobalt that is underpinned by the high margin economics of the gold from the project.”

Latitude will have a major natural advantage with KSB, benefitting from Finland’s world-class roads and water infrastructure together with access to the country’s ultra-low-emissions hydro-electrical grid. It is also in a jurisdiction screaming out for its own supply of critical metals.

Under European Union law, cobalt is labelled as a strategic metal. KSB’s future output of the metal could account for as much as 25 per cent of Europe’s internal cobalt production, placing Latitude in the crosshairs of buyers looking to shore up a non-Chinese supply.

With such an important geopolitical bargaining chip in its possession, the company says it is also likely to benefit from some significant EU government funding to help with its construction costs.

Latitude is also planning an aggressive near-term drilling campaign at several near-mine targets, where previous rock chip sampling has picked up grades of up to 490g/t gold.

Management is confident there is plenty of untapped potential waiting to be discovered near the existing resource, which if unearthed, could require a bigger operation in the not-too-distant future.

Early studies have already uncovered a compelling, low-cost growth option to upgrade the plant by 33 per cent to 1 million tonnes per annum at a cost of US$13m.

There is also potential for underground mining at the K1 pit, which will be explored within the prefeasibility studies that are due to start shortly. Ongoing metallurgical test work is being conducted to see how the company could further boost cobalt recovery and explore a rare earths upside.

The scoping study findings appear to have proved up KSB as a hugely promising project for the exploration minnow in a time of roaring gold markets and with cobalt back on the radar.

By owning high-grade resources, strategic metals, solid economics and with plenty of exploration upside baked in, Latitude appears to be sitting in the right space at a perfect time.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au