Toronto-based First Cobalt has produced its first battery-grade cobalt sulphate at its refinery in Ontario, which CEO Trent Mell says is the company’s “most significant accomplishment” as the majority of the refined cobalt for the electric vehicle (EV) market is produced in Asia.

“With no cobalt sulphate production in North America today, First Cobalt stands to become the first such producer for the American electric vehicle market,” he states.

The company in November started testing cobalt hydroxide material as feedstock for the First Cobalt refinery.

SGS Canada was engaged to test cobalt hydroxide using the processes in the current refinery flowsheet to assess its suitability as feedstock. The current refinery flowsheet includes an autoclave circuit and a number of solvent extraction lines for treating various elements, followed by product precipitation and filtration stages.

First Cobalt said that test work had concluded that processing cobalt hydroxide feed would not require the reactivation of the refinery’s autoclaves, providing an opportunity for higher production potential than projected in an independent study prepared by Primero Group.

Test work was carried out in single batches, offering opportunity to improve product specifications to meet offtake partner requirements.

Mell said that the cobalt hydroxide used in these tests was currently sold at about 60% of the prevailing cobalt price, which could offer good margin opportunities.

The refinery, which is the only permitted primary cobalt refinery in North America, could be recommissioned in 18 to 24 months, and has the potential to produce up to 2 000 t/y of cobalt.

 “We are encouraged by the interest shown in this strategic asset by cobalt miners and EV companies alike and intend to move swiftly to secure long-term feed supply and offtake contracts.

“We are currently exploring a number of non-dilutive financing options for the capital requirements to restart the facility,” stated Mell.

In late 2018, the company released the results of three studies undertaken to estimate capital requirements, operating costs, permit renewal timelines, potential feedstock options and offtake opportunities. At a 24 t/d feed rate and using the current flowsheet, the capital cost of the restart is estimated at $25.7-million and a permitting review concluded that a restart is possible within 18 months of selecting a feedstock.

Commissioned in 1996, the refinery is located in Ontario. Once operational, the refinery would become the only North American producer of refined cobalt for the North American EV market.

First Cobalt is a pure-play cobalt company whose flagship asset is the Iron Creek Cobalt project in Idaho, US.