Laiva has progressed their listing plans by signing a letter of intent with a listed Canadian company to serve as the shell for a reverse takeover entry onto the bourse. Notably, the shell is anticipated to have just over C$10 million in cash, which will go towards accelerating production plans which are due to start imminently in August.

The company confirmed their plans to start mining ore next month in the lead up to the beginning of processing through the mill in November. Laiva will stockpile around 300kt of ore to take advantage of Finland’s 24-hour per day sunlight during summer, with the goal of getting the mill to 4,000tpd before year-end and 6,000tpd nameplate capacity in March 2024.

The Laiva team is onsite and ready to get cracking. They recently took investors on a site visit where the extensive work that the previous owners had already completed during their ramp-up period in Q4 2021 was on display. Pre-stripping at both the North and South pits on the upper benches was complete, and blast-hole drilling was well advanced before their unexpected closure in December 2021. 

Image: Jim Jackson, Laiva Gold GM during a site visit – June 28, 2023. Source: Laiva Gold.

The Laiva Mine consists of a state-of-the art, 2Mtpa processing plant with a US$400 million replacement value, as well as a 6,000 hectare land package that includes an 854koz gold resource – that could be as high as 4Moz with further exploration. It is located in Finland, frequently ranked among the top mining jurisdictions in the world and the company considers itself ready to resume profitable production.

The company is making some crucial repairs and modifications to the existing infrastructure to ensure smooth operation of Europe’s largest gold mill. With mill liners shortly due to arrive for the Pebble Mill, Laiva are changing the dimensions of the screens in the carbon-in-leach (CIL) tanks to match the same configuration as Pilar’s operation in Brazil. This change is to resolve the problem with blocked screens that caused lengthy stoppages in the previous startup. Laiva is also replacing the rotor concentrate ring in the Knelson Concentrator. Previous operators did not maintain the Knelson, resulting in as much as 40 per cent of the gold going to tailings. 

Image: Laiva’s 6,000tpd gold plant. Source: Laiva Gold.

The company believes that they have an exciting gold mine on their hands that has the potential to reach an annualised run rate of 80,000 ounces of gold per year.

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