Latitude Consolidated is planning to appoint Klaus Eckhof’s daughter Kim to its board as part of its foray into lithium.

Latitude (ASX:LCD), which was previously solely focused on gold, will ask shareholders to vote on Ms Eckhof’s appointment at a June 18 general meeting.

Klaus Echkf is a well-known mining identity associated with ASX stocks such as AVZ Minerals (ASX:AVZ), Okapi Resources (ASX:OKR) and Taruga Gold (ASX:TAR).

Mr Eckof’s other daughter Sheena is a director of Taruga.

Kim Eckhof’s appointment comes after Latitude struck a deal to acquire a 70 per cent interest in the Mbeta lithium project located in southern Zimbabwe.

She previously worked at Azure Capital in Perth and RFC Ambrian in London. She is now working with Medea Capital Partners in London, a corporate advisor to resource companies.

Latitude chairman Tim Moore told Stockhead Ms Eckhof’s far reaching connections will come in very handy for a small player like Latitude.

Mr Moore is confident she will be win a seat on the board at the upcoming meeting, with several shareholders expressing support for the move.

The Mbeta lithium project was introduced to the company by Mr Eckhof and Mark Gasson, who continue to assist Latitude in finding further project acquisition opportunities in southern and eastern Africa.

Mr Eckhof is somewhat of a veteran when it comes to projects in Africa. He has been working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for over 15 years.

Mr Eckhof took Moto Goldmines through to 11 million JORC ounces and then sold the company to Rand Gold Resources for around $485 million.

He has also been successful with the high-grade Bissie tin project for Alphamin Resources and more recently the Manono lithium project for AVZ Minerals (ASX:AVZ).

“Klaus and his colleague Mark are very well connected there, particularly right throughout east Africa,” Mr Moore said.

“So they were able to give us access to some pretty interesting opportunities which we are working on.”

Latitude told investors it plans to undertake a site visit to Zimbabwe in June to oversee the exploration planning and to assess additional strategic in-country investment opportunities.

Zimbabwe has become more investment-friendly to miners, with the fall of long-time leader Robert Mugabe in November and the appointment of new president Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The new president has declared the country, which has been largely underexplored in recent years, is now “open for business”.

Zimbabwe is one of only a handful of lithium producing countries.

Latitude is most interested in lithium projects in Zimbabwe and Zambia, but is also considering opportunities in other battery metals.

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