As the EV race hots up, an aspiring nickel producer prepares to take on the mantle of being the next nickel sulphide producer.
BSX share price has risen significantly over the last couple of months, so what has changed?
Samso talks to Scott Williamson, Managing Director of Blackstone Minerals Limited (ASX: BSX) about its aspiration to produce nickel with its Ta Khoa Nickel project in Vietnam. The company is based in Perth, Western Australia.
The Ta Khoa Nickel-Copper-PGE Project is located 160 km west of Hanoi in the Son La Province of Vietnam and includes an existing modern nickel mine built to Australian standards, which is currently under care and maintenance. The Ban Phuc nickel mine successfully operated as a mechanised underground nickel mine from 2013 to 2016.
Previous project owners invested more than US$136m in capital and generated US$213m in revenue during a 3.5-year period of falling nickel prices.
The project was placed into care and maintenance in mid-2016 during some of the lowest nickel prices in the past 10 years. Existing infrastructure associated with the project includes an internationally-designed 450 ktpa processing plant connected to local hydro grid power with a fully-permitted tailings facility and a modern 250-person camp.
Since commencing maiden drilling in August 2019, Blackstone has made significant progress at Ta Khoa, drilling over 9,000 m of diamond core in more than 47 holes into the Ban Phuc DSS deposit and the highly prospective King Cobra discovery zone.
An initial scoping study evaluating mining and processing options is well advanced, including potential in-country downstream processing to deliver high-value nickel sulfate into Asia’s rapidly expanding electric vehicle (EV) industry. The recently announced MOU with Asia’s largest and the world’s second-largest EV battery cathode manufacturer, Ecopro BM Co Limited represents a significant step toward making this a reality.
Scott Williamson is the Managing Director and this Rooster Talk is to chat over what Blackstone has been doing since our last Coffee with Samso. The share price has risen significantly over the last couple of months and I wanted to know what has changed.
Scott shares with us the recent drilling activities and results from the last campaign. We also touched on the sentiment of the current capital market and the medium to long term predictions of the nickel price.
I was interested to know what Scott thinks about how the changing world events will impact the strategy and plans of Blackstone Minerals.
Listen to this podcast to find out more
About Scott Williamson
Experienced Managing Director with a demonstrated history of working in the mining & metals industry. Skilled in Open Pit & Underground Mining, Corporate Finance, Investor Relations and Project Planning. A strong business development professional with equity capital markets experience graduated from West Australian School of Mines and Curtin University of Technology. Scott holds a WA First Class Mine Manager’s Certificate and is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
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