Construction advancing on eCobalt’s Idaho project

Construction at eCobalt Solutions’ Idaho cobalt project, in the Idaho cobalt belt, continues to advance on time and on budget, the company said on Thursday.

“Very good progress has been made at the project by our exceptional team of mining professionals,” CEO Paul Farquharson said in statement on Thursday.

The project remains on target for commercial production to begin in 2020.

In addition, discussions continue to progress with strong interest from multiple potential offtake partners and project financiers in numerous jurisdictions.

“We remain focused on the execution of our strategic plan to create long-term value for all shareholders by pursuing a clean cobalt concentrate favourable to the battery manufacturing market.”

Development of the concentrate roasting process using a rotary kiln continues as planned.

Bench scale testing, conducted by Expert Processing Solutions, a Dundee Sustainable Technologies partner laboratory, was completed in July.

Pilot-level testing to confirm the updated process flow sheet was also conducted in July by Hazen Research.

This test confirmed stable process temperature and material flow conditions to volatilise the arsenic from the concentrate into the off-gas stream identified in the bench scale tests.

Additional pilot testing is ongoing to confirm roasting off-gas management system design criteria to efficiently remove the arsenic from the kiln off-gasses for vitrification.

As development advances, ongoing testing will allow for additional improvements where appropriate.

This ongoing test work will ensure there is a high level of confidence in the flowsheet for the cobalt production facility and contribute to further de-risking the project by establishing properly tested metallurgical and processing parameters.