DiscovEx goes for gold as gold price enters new territory

DiscovEx Resources will take-over a private company that has racked up a 650,000 ounce gold resource in Finland in addition to Europe’s second largest undeveloped cobalt resource. It also has some stellar exploration hits including a 22m intersection grading 98 g/t gold.  The Finnish turf is currently owned by Australian company Latitude 66 Cobalt, which the DiscovEx board proposes to acquire by way of an off- market takeover.

The company says it has entered into a Bid Implementation Agreement with Latitude 66 in which the company will offer Latitude 66 shareholders 0.8813161 shares in DCX for every Latitude 66 share held.

Once the transaction is complete, DiscovEx intends to change its name to Latitude 66 Limited and complete a personnel restructure to provide the appropriate mix of technical, corporate and in-country experience with local management providing boots-on-the-ground expertise.

The new project contains the flagship Kuusamo Schist Belt (KSB) project, sitting about 700km north of Helsinki, with a mineral resource of 7.3 million tonnes grading a solid 2.74 g/t gold and 0.08 per cent cobalt for 650,000 ounces of gold and 5840 tonnes of cobalt.

The KSB project is comprised of one granted mining concession, six granted exploration permits and a further 26 exploration permit applications covering a total of 298 square kilometres.

Management says KSB offers ‘camp-scale’ potential with exploration drilling throwing up hits including 50.15m at 0.45 per cent cobalt and 10.25m at 4.84g/t gold, 24.2m at 4.5 g/t gold and 0.2 per cent cobalt and 22.3m at a massive 98.2 g/t gold and 0.12 per cent cobalt.

DiscovEx will now look to advance KBS through feasibility to define near-term production opportunities from the orebody – Notably the deposit remains tantalisingly open in all directions.

DiscovEx Resources managing director Toby Wellman said: “The proposed acquisition represents a step change for DCX and provides exposure to an emerging critical minerals demand that is gaining momentum across the globe. Europe recognises the importance of securing domestic supply chains and with DCX acquiring the second largest undeveloped Cobalt mineral resource in the European Union, the Company will have exposure to this and the eventual upside this may present.”

DiscovEx also says there has been significant metallurgical and engineering work completed to-date at the project which has demonstrated a conventional flowsheet that can deliver high gold and cobalt recoveries, giving confidence to the potential downstream processing side of the Finland business.

Management says there is also significant exploration potential in leads analogous to KSB across three greenstone belts at the Peräpohja Schist Belts (PSB), Kainuu Schist Belts (Kainuu) and Central Lapland Greenstone Belt (Kola and Kolari) in Northern Finland.

The company is taking aim at a comprehensive suite of conceptual targets which have already been identified and it plans to complete geophysical surveys to grow the portfolio ahead of drill testing.  First to be drilled are a set of high priority targets at PSB where 13 exploration permit applications have been approved spanning 400 square kilometres of prospective turf.

Interestingly, Finland is proving it is no slouch in the global gold game ‑ hosting 39 operating gold mines and the largest gold operation in Europe at the Kittila mine which produces in excess of 200,000 ounces per year from a 6.3 million ounce resource.

In November last year, Canadian company Rupert Resources updated its mineral resource for its Ikkari project – which sits about 100km east of KSB - to an eye-watering 4.09 million ounces of gold.  Notably, the mineralisation at Ikkari remains open.

Finland is also the only primary producer of cobalt in the European Union and the largest refiner of the critical metal outside of China.   Major cobalt miners in Finland include Anglo American, Agnico Eagle and European companies Boliden and Outokumpu.

Closer to KSB in the Central Lapland region, Anglo American is hard at work maturing its Sakatti project which hosts copper, nickel and platinum group elements in what the company says may support mining for over 20 years. 

With the gold price testing previously unthought of highs at around US$2300 an ounce, it is game on now for the gold miners and it is only a matter of time until the love starts to flow down to explorers with decent high grade deposits in friendly jurisdictions.

The cobalt angle to the new acquisition also can not be ignored. Whilst the cobalt price has come off its crazy highs lately, at around US$28,000 it would still make a nickel miner blush.

Discovex looks to have reinvented itself with the latest acquisition that should dovetail nicely alongside its Australian based exploration ground. 

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au