eCobalt ships 3 t sample for pilot-scale testing

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Project developer eCobalt Solutions has shipped a 3 t mineralised sample from its Idaho cobalt project (ICP) for pilot-level testing at Dundee Sustainable Technologies’ (DST’s) facilities, in Quebec.

The TSX-listed cobalt junior said on Wednesday that the testing would be done to further confirm the successful removal of arsenic on a pilot level to less than 1% from ICP ore concentrates by conventional roasting methods, as demonstrated in bench scale testing earlier this month.

The results of the further testing are expected to provide feasibility-level detailed engineering data to assist in costing and sizing of equipment to produce a clean cobalt concentrate with <0.5% arsenic at the proposed cobalt production facility (CPF). This testing supports the company’s optimisation efforts to reduce technical risk at the CPF through the development of a simplified flow sheet and is expected to result in a significant reduction in capital and operating expenditures at the facility.

“The results from the pilot test are expected to add additional confidence in the ICP’s ability to produce a clean, high-value cobalt concentrate for potential offtakers, further advancing current offtake discussions. This data will also support the development of a new, optimised feasibility study that will also incorporate data from recent exploration drilling where positive results will be used to update the current resources,” commented president and CEO Paul Farquharson.

eCobalt is investigating, with the assistance of DST, roasting ICP ore to produce a clean, low-arsenic cobalt concentrate and this has been well received by potential offtakers, the company said.

eCobalt intends to identify its partner(s) and definitive agreements in early 2018 after a thorough evaluation of the proposals.