Australia's Cobalt Blue said it will partner with Japanese oil and gas refiner Iwatani Corporation to develop a nickel-cobalt refinery project in Western Australia.
The first phase of the project is aimed at processing third-party raw materials, with a planned annual output of 3,000 tons of cobalt sulfate and 1,000 tons of nickel sulfate. The proposed refinery, located near Perth, Western Australia, will have a large demonstration plant for testing work on third-party materials to support technical research.
Cobalt Blue said it has launched a large-scale raw material testing program for the project and plans to trial up to 5 tons of samples from third-party suppliers.
Iwatani Corporation is an oil and gas refining and marketing company specializing in the production and trading of commodities. The project will be based on the Doral Molten Materials site, which is owned by Iwatani Corporation's Australian subsidiary.
Cobalt Blue Holdings Ltd (ASX:COB) is a company engaged in cobalt exploration and project development in New South Wales, Australia. The company's strategic objective is to achieve rapid development of the company by exploiting the mineral resources of the Thackaringa cobalt mine and leveraging its important position in new energy technologies.
The Thackaringa Cobalt mine is the main exploration project for Cobalt Blue, which contains abundant cobalt resources, a metal that is in very high demand in the new battery era, especially as lithium-ion batteries are now widely used in clean energy systems. Cobalt Blue hopes to increase its mining and refining capacity for the Thackaringa cobalt mine to meet the growing global demand for electric vehicles and other new energy devices.
Cobalt Blue's vision is to move the Thackaringa cobalt mine from presumed to indicated mineral resources through strategic development. This not only requires a large amount of capital investment, but also requires the fine management of geological exploration, mining, beneficiation, smelting and other links to ensure the effective development and utilization of mineral resources.
