Cobalt Blue is seeking partners for the Broken Hill Cobalt Cobalt Mining and Processing Project in Australia.

According to the Australian government, there are opportunities for new equity or purchase partners and advanced discussions are expected in 2022, when the demonstration plant goes online and the Feasibility Study nears completion.

The Broken Hill Cobalt Project includes the development of an open pit mining operation, downstream mineral processing and a refinery to produce an intermediate mixture of high purity cobalt-nickel hydroxide and/or cobalt sulfate (suitable as a cathode precursor battery) and elemental sulfur.

The useful life of the mine and processing operations is also expected to be at least 20 years.

A pilot plant was already commissioned in March 2021 and a larger-scale demonstration plant is planned to start operating in the first quarter of 2022.

Cobalt Blue has confirmed that cobalt is enclosed within pyrite ore, while the company developed and patented a metallurgical process with the following characteristics:

• High cobalt recoveries.
• No sulfur dioxide emissions.
• Produces high quality cobalt sulfate and high purity elemental sulfur.
• Relatively low capital and operating costs compared to other processing methods.

Cobalt Blue

The credentials of the company’s environmental, social and governance criteria are being assessed in accordance with the Cobalt Institute Responsible Assessment Framework.

Cobalt Blue released a major update to the Broken Hill Cobalt Project (BHCP) in July 2020.

Essentially the optimized Pre-Feasibility Study included a major resource update.

The 2020 Project Update increased the operating life of BHCP to 18 years (in light of our final goal of 20 years) and included significant improvements in capital/operating costs.

As a result, the company estimates that the BHCP could achieve a total sustained cost of US $ 12 / lb for a premium cobalt sulfate, equivalent to the lowest cost quartile in the world.

Also, capital intensity (US dollar cost of capital / cobalt production) is only 25-30% of its peer group.

In other words, the Australian government concluded, the BHCP is a very capital-efficient investment in high-volume, high-quality, long-lasting ethical cobalt.