PERTH (miningweekly.com) – London-listed precious and base metals explorer Greatland Gold has revealed plans to hunt for cobalt in Australia's Pilbara.
The Aim-listed company on Monday told shareholders that it had applied for two adjoining exploration licences covering the Panorama cobalt project, in Western Australia.
"Cobalt is a vital component in many of the new technologies that are set to reshape the future of the global energy market. Half of the current global supply of cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa and cobalt projects with the ability to scale to meet future global demands are rare, particularly in safe jurisdictions such as Australia,” said Greatland CEO Gervaise Heddle.
"We believe that the Panorama cobalt project is highly prospective for a large, near surface deposit in an area that has been almost completely ignored by mineral explorers for cobalt for the past 40 years.”
The addition of the two exploration licences, which cover a total area of 130 km2, is in line with the company’s strategy to assess precious and strategic metal opportunities, Heddle said.
The Pilbara is recognised for its gold and base metals deposits, with limited exploration done over cobalt mineralisation. Greatland is hoping to undertake a review of airborne aeromagnetics and integration of geological and geochemical data to generate targets that will be subject to geological reconnaissance, soil sampling and rock chip sampling during the third quarter of this year.
The grant of the exploration licences is expected to take some six months, Heddle said.