UK-based metal exploration and mining company Greatland Gold (LON:$GGP) has recently applied for two licenses that will allow the company to explore around 130 square kilometers of area in the northern Western Australia’s Pilbara Region. The region is expected to have a largely untouched cobalt property, which can be extremely helpful in the recent wake of rising cobalt demand.

In the early 1970s, the Anglo American Corporation conducted a systematic stream sediment sampling programme in the Pilbara Region. Results showed that there were large chunks of high cobalt in streams. The area where Greatland Gold will be xploring, located about 200 km south-east of Port Hedland, Greatland Gold’s cobalt exploration endeavours — named the Panorama Cobalt Project — is located across from streams where the high cobalt was found.

With almost more than half of the world’s cobalt production located in the unsafe and politically unstable country of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the prospect of a steady cobalt supply that could meet rising demand is rare — especially in relatively stable countries such as Australia, Greatland Gold CEO Gervaise Heddle commented. However, Heddle believes that the Panorama Cobalt Project has extremely high potential to be a large, near-surface deposit for cobalt, the area having been ignored by mineral explorers for the past 40 years.

Most historical findings in the Pilbara Region had been mainly gold and/or base-metal, however little to no amount of effort were put into cobalt mineralisation. Greatland Gold is optimistic that this exploration will change that.

If it’s given the go-ahead, the company plans to do review of airborne aeromagnetics along with integrating geological and geochemical data. Further studies will be done with geological reconnaissance, soil sampling, and rock chip samplings, possibly beginning in the third quarter of this year.

Greatland Gold expects that it will obtain its exploration licenses for the area within the next six months of submitting the application. Currently, the company is also focused on gold and nickel exploration projects, four of which are located in Western Australia and two in Tasmania.

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