The team at Cobalt Blue were surprised to find higher-than-expected levels of cobalt in its ore concentrate at the Broken Hill Cobalt Project.
A third party independently assessed how much cobalt could be recovered from the ore, set to be mined at Cobalt Blue’s mine site, 25 km southwest of Broken Hill.
The data showed a very high level of cobalt recovery was possible – around 95%.
Adam Randall, Cobalt Blue’s Demonstration Plant Manager, said the local team had successfully mined and processed a variety of ore grades to produce a consistent grade of cobalt.
“We have achieved great outcomes from our Concentrator Circuit, exceeding expectations and giving us substantial proof for our Project,” Mr Randall said.
“This puts us firmly on track to deliver the initial design criteria for the processing plant, and this will feed into the Definitive Feasibility Study, which will be completed next year,” he said.
Joe Kaderavek, Cobalt Blue’s Chief Executive Officer, agreed that the plant’s concentration operation provided large-scale and technically substantial proof of the Cobalt Blue project.
“Converting over 4000 tonnes of variable low to high-grade ore to a consistent high-grade concentrate is a major project enabling step,” Mr Kaderavek said.
The plant has processed 4200 tonnes of ore to produce 690 tonnes of wet concentrate.
This year the company sent 10 kilograms of cobalt sulphate to potential global partners and received positive feedback from the recipients about the product.
The plant will now process the concentrate to make the first large-scale samples (approximately 100 kilograms) of mixed hydroxide precipitate for dispatching to global battery and electric vehicle makers to test in 2023.
Cobalt is used in electric vehicle battery manufacturing to ensure batteries do not overheat or catch fire, which helps electric vehicles have a greater range and durability.
“Our local-first perspective means our success is very much with thanks to our Broken Hill workforce, suppliers and local community,” Mr Randall said.
“I look forward to next year and moving closer to our goal of becoming a global top 10 producer of cobalt,” he said.
Each milestone moves the Cobalt Blue Project closer to reaching full-scale production at its mine, planned for 2025.
