First Cobalt Refinery

 

On April 3, 2019, the Company announced that it successfully produced a high purity battery grade cobalt sulfate using the First Cobalt Refinery flowsheet. The First Cobalt Refinery is a hydrometallurgical cobalt refinery in Ontario, Canada, approximately 600 kilometres from the U.S. border, accessible by road or rail. The First Cobalt Refinery has the potential to produce either a cobalt sulfate for the lithium-ion battery market or cobalt metal for the North American aerospace industry or other industrial and military applications.

 

Once operational, the Refinery would become the only North American producer of refined cobalt for the North American EV market.

 

Cobalt sulfate produced using First Cobalt Refinery flowsheet

 

The facility was commissioned in 1996 and in its current configuration can accomodate a throughput of 24 tonnes per day. The current footprint includes an empty feed warehouse that once housed a mill. The facility is located on a 40-acre property that can be expanded to 120 acres with two settling ponds and an autoclave pond.

 

Aerial image of the exterior of the First Cobalt Refinery buildings.

 

A 2012 report prepared for a previous owner by Hatch estimated the replacement value of the First Cobalt Refinery at US$78 million, excluding the capital invested in power lines and earthworks related to the tailings facility and roads.

 

The facility is fully permitted for processing feed containing elevated concentrations of arsenic, such as those from the Cobalt Camp, the Idaho Cobalt Belt and elsewhere in North America. The Company believes that permitting a similar facility in North America today could take a significant investment of time.

 

The ability of the Refinery to process materials containing elevated arsenic and produce cobalt battery materials could de-risk not only First Cobalt projects, but also other North American cobalt projects.

 

Aerial image of the facility illustrating the existing footprint of the refinery building and the tailing ponds.

 

The Refinery contains three circuits: a pressure oxidation circuit, a solvent extraction circuit and a Merrill Crowe circuit. Feed containing arsenic is first treated in the pressure oxidation circuit where arsenic is combined with iron to create a stable iron arsenate called scorodite. The Refinery permits allow scorodite to be disposed of in its autoclave pond.