- First
Cobalt drilling program in Idaho shows promise for important high-tech
metal
- During
the next decade, demand for li-ion battery cobalt alone expected to double
current levels for metal’s entire market
- $9
million program at First Cobalt’s Idaho site preparing NI
43-101-compatible report on historic site with still-unexplored potential
First Cobalt Corp. (TSX.V: FCC) (OTCQX: FTSSF) (ASX: FCC) is
reaping rewarding reports from its exploration to extend a historic resource in
Idaho’s prolific Cobalt Belt. The project is an example of industry efforts to
establish North American sources of the metal so vital to high-tech batteries
and other modern tech applications, and First Cobalt’s portfolio indicates its
potential in leading the effort. Having stable North America-based operations
and sources could help avoid unpredictable future problems, such as Panasonic’s
recent sudden cut off of a cobalt supplier due its relationship with Cuba.
First Cobalt has three significant North American assets:
the Iron Creek Project in Idaho, with its historic mineral resource estimate
(not currently compliant with NI 43-101 standards); the Canadian Cobalt Camp
north of the Great Lakes, with more than 50 past producing mines; and the only
cobalt refinery in North America capable of producing battery materials,
located near the Cobalt Camp property.
This year’s 30,000-meter drill program at the Idaho site is
designed to extend the strike length of the previously known mineralization in
two zones (Waite and No Name) and potentially determine if a third zone is
present where continuity of intersections has been encountered between holes
along strike. Six drill holes completed at the western end of the cobalt-copper
mineralized zones have validated previously reported intersections and extended
the total strike length of the Waite Zone westward to 520 meters along a dip
length of more than 250 meters from the surface.
First Cobalt reports that the extended portion of the Waite
Zone is particularly copper-rich, and that high-grade intercepts are found
within broader zones of lower grade cobalt-copper that could become suitable
for bulk mining methods. The calculation of a mineral resource estimate
compliant with NI 43-101 reporting standards is currently underway for the
initial resource area drilled last year and early this year, and results are
expected by October.
First Cobalt announced plans for the assay advancement of
the Idaho property on June 11 as part of a $9 million program to develop a
Measured and Indicated Resource estimate of the site, which First Cobalt
obtained through its acquisition of US Cobalt.
“First Cobalt acquired US Cobalt because we believe that
Iron Creek is one of the most prospective and advanced projects in North
America,” First Cobalt President and CEO Trent Mell stated in a news release at
the time (http://ibn.fm/a8m3L).
On July 19 (http://ibn.fm/4XzNJ), Mell added, “Drilling continues to
extend the strike and dip extent of the Iron Creek Project beyond the
boundaries of the maiden resource estimate expected in October. The consistency
of cobalt grades across wider widths and the higher copper grades were expected
and are encouraging. These results support further testing the western strike
extension of Iron Creek for a second resource estimate in early 2019.”
International metals and minerals research agency Roskill
anticipates that sufficient quantities of refined capacity cobalt will exist
through 2021 but that “there is considerable uncertainty thereafter.” Roskill
anticipates that demand from the high-tech battery sector alone will more than
double the size of the entire current market, which includes nickel alloys,
tool materials, catalysts and magnets, by 2027 (http://ibn.fm/MlFG8). Cobalt
also enjoys national security status, thanks to its use in rocket and jet
engines.
Roskill estimates that cobalt demand was 118,000 metric tons
last year (http://ibn.fm/f9hWK).
The research and consultancy group anticipates the demand for cobalt at 310,000
metric tons a decade from now, of which more than 240,000 metric tons will come
from the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles, laptops and mobile
phones. Roskill also noted that prices for cobalt resources hit a 10-year high
during the first half of this year, reaching over $90,000 per metric ton on the
London Metal Exchange.
First Cobalt is a vertically integrated North American
pure-play cobalt company with headquarters in Canada. The escalation in trade
war politics between the United States and other countries currently has the
potential to impact a variety of market sectors, including cobalt. However,
First Cobalt’s activities have opened the potential for responding to adverse
conditions beyond North America, particularly because of its extraction refinery
— the only one permitted for cobalt in North America. Although it is not
operational at present, the facility is capable of resuming the production of
battery-grade materials as First Cobalt decides to do so.
For more information, visit the company’s website at http://ibn.fm/FTSSF
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