January 16, 2019

In October, 2018, First Cobalt announced the results of three independent studies undertaken to estimate capital requirements, operating costs, permit renewal timelines, potential feedstock options and offtake opportunities to support a restart of the First Cobalt Refinery in Ontario, Canada.

Highlights

  • Under a 24 tonnes per day (tpd) base case scenario, the refinery could produce up to 1,000 tonnes of cobalt per year; the study also considers an expansion scenario of up to 50 tpd
  • At 24 tpd and using the current flowsheet, the capital cost of the restart is $25.7M (including a 30% contingency) and operating cost is estimated at $6.7M per annum
  • Permitting review concludes that a restart is possible within 18 months of selecting a feedstock under the base case scenario
  • Potential feed material includes cobalt concentrate from mining operations, ethically-sourced cobalt hydroxide material from the DRC and recycled battery materials from North America
  • Refinery could produce a cobalt sulfate for the lithium-ion battery market or cobalt metal for the American aerospace industry

Discussions initiated with potential offtake partners

24 TPD 50 TPD
(Base Case)
Total Cost with 30% Contingency US$M 25.72 105.36
Feed Processed Tonnes 8,760 18,250
Head Grades Ni % 10.50 10.50
Co % 15.00 15.00
Availability % 90 90
h/a 7,884 16,425
Recoveries Co % 90 90
Ni % 90 90
Mass of Metal Recovered Ni Tonnes 745 1,552
Co Tonnes 1,064 2,217
Co Mlbs 2.35 4.89

*Concentrate metal content fed into the First Cobalt Refinery will vary dependent upon feed source. A range of potential production rates for each option is provided. A mass pull to concentrate of 6% has been assumed.

Click here to view the Refinery Report

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First Cobalt Corp. published this content on 16 January 2019 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 16 January 2019 20:03:03 UTC