{"id":1182123,"date":"2020-05-04T05:49:09","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T10:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1022617"},"modified":"2020-05-04T05:49:09","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T10:49:09","slug":"first-cobalt-to-produce-battery-grade-cobalt-in-canada-by-year-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1182123","title":{"rendered":"First Cobalt to produce battery-grade cobalt in Canada by year-end"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Canada\u2019s First Cobalt (TSX-V:FCC)\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstcobalt.com\/investors\/news\/first-cobalt-announces-positive-feasibility-study-results-for-canadian-cobalt-refinery-expansion\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">said on Monday<\/a> it expected to begin production of cobalt sulphate late this year or in early 2021, which would make it North America\u2019s only primary producer of the key ingredient for the batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs) and high tech devices.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Toronto-based company said the expansion of its refinery<br \/>\nin Ontario, which is carrying out in partnership with mining and commodities<br \/>\ntrader giant Glencore (LON:GLEN), would help North America reduce its reliance<br \/>\non China.<\/p>\n<p>The Asian giant practically dominates the supply chain for<br \/>\nrechargeable lithium-ion batteries and also count with two of the world\u2019s top<br \/>\nproducers of the white metal \u2014 Tianqi Lithium&nbsp;and&nbsp;Ganfeng Lithium.<\/p>\n<p>Glencore injected <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/glencore-commits-45-million-to-restart-first-cobalt-refinery-in-canada\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">$5 million into First Cobalt\u2019s project last year<\/a>. It said at the time would invest another $40 million\u00a0into recommissioning and expanding the refinery, located 600 km from the US border.<\/p>\n<p>The project needs an initial capital of $56 million.<\/p>\n<p>Based on a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/first-cobalt-refinery-output-doubled\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">feasibility study by Ausenco Engineering Canada<\/a>, if the<br \/>\nfacility operated at 55 tpd, it could produce 5,000 tonnes a year of cobalt sulphate,<br \/>\nequivalent to 1,000 tonnes of cobalt.<\/p>\n<p>By the fourth quarter of 2021, the refinery\u2019s production<br \/>\ncould reach 5,000 tonnes of cobalt or 25,000 tonnes of cobalt sulphate, which<br \/>\nwould be a significant proportion of the global refined cobalt market.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The strong outlook for electric vehicles, the push by automakers to develop shorter supply chains and the projected refinery economics create an excellent opportunity,&#8221; the company\u2019s chief executive, Trent Mell, said in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstcobalt.com\/investors\/news\/first-cobalt-to-host-investor-call-on-refinery-feasibility-study-results\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Monday\u2019s call conference<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Production costs are estimated at $2.72 a pound, or about<br \/>\n$6,000 per tonne. Cobalt metal prices on the London Metal Exchange currently<br \/>\nstand at $30,000 a tonne. Cobalt sulphate and hydroxide are typically priced at<br \/>\nthe discount to the metal.<\/p>\n<p>Canada already has other cobalt refineries, including<br \/>\nSherritt International\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/fortsaskatchewan.sherritt.com\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">metal facility in Fort Saskatchewan,<\/a>&nbsp;Alberta, which<br \/>\nhas been in operations for more than 50 years.<\/p>\n<p>The company ships refined cobalt around the world, except<br \/>\nfor the US, as the country has kept embargo restrictions on products coming<br \/>\nfrom Cuba \u2013 the source of the lateritic ore used by Sherritt to produce mixed<br \/>\nsulphides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By the fourth quarter of 2021, the refinery&#8217;s production is expected to reach over 25,000 tonnes of cobalt sulphate a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1016,949,369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1182123"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1182172,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182123\/revisions\/1182172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1182123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1182123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1182123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}