TSX-V-listed First Cobalt is moving directly to an expansion scenario at its cobalt refinery, north of Toronto, and will conduct pilot plant work at third-party facilities, saving millions of dollars.
An onsite demonstration plant would have required "severl million dollars" of additional investment that would not have been credited toward the 55/td expansion, currently estimated at $56-million, the company said on Wednesday.
"EV manufacturers expressed no preference for an on-site demonstration plant, as final product qualification will be conducted from material produced at the expanded refinery. Management is pleased with this outcome as it will reduce costs and complexities and allow the project team to focus its efforts on building a globally competitive facility that will be the only North American refinery of cobalt sulphate," First Cobalt said in a project update.
The company also stated that optimisation studies for the refinery project were advancing, while financing discussions were progressing.
The company first released a detailed engineering study for an expansion of its permitted cobalt refinery from 12 t/d to 55 t/d, in May. An expanded refinery would represent up to 5% of global demand for refined cobalt.
A key focus of the optimisation work had been to assess alternative approaches to managing sodium. Process water from the refinery would be treated to a level that met regulatory requirements before being returned to the environment.
However, owing to the use of sodium hydroxide in the process flowsheet that has been designed, effluent from the refining process would have an elevated concentration of sodium.
The engineering study contemplated installing an established technological solution of evaporation and crystallization to remove sodium content, but the cost of this solution represents about 30% of the refinery operating cost of $2.72/lb of cobalt produced.
First Cobalt said was in discussion with various vendors and was making progress on alternatives that would achieve the same environmental standards at a significantly lower cost. Results of this work were expected in August.