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.