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Energy
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General Market Commentary
Topics:
General Energy
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General Market Commentary
First Cobalt samples high-grade mineralisation styles among historic Cobalt Camp mines
Project consolidator First Cobalt has sampled high-grade mineralisation styles from several historic mines it owns in the prospective Cobalt Mining Camp, in Ontario, located about 400 km north of Toronto.
The Toronto-headquartered company announced on Thursday that high-grade vein style mineralisation was found in muck piles throughout the camp, containing up to 9.22% cobalt and more than 5 300 g/t silver.
Listed on the TSX-V, the company said it considers the mineralisation to be representative of historical mineralisation styles and useful for mineralogical tests. The similarity of the cobalt minerals in all veins points towards using a consistent processing system for the various deposits throughout the camp.
Disseminated and fracture-controlled mineralisation, such as that found in the Bellellen and Haileybury mines, occurs in the same mineral phases and can also be treated in one system, despite being lower grade at 0.25% and 0.5% cobalt.
Further, the company advised that, despite being generally lower in abundance, there may be opportunities for the metallurgical recovery of copper and nickel. Historical mining in the Cobalt Camp focused on recovering silver with cobalt as a secondary revenue stream.
“These mineralogical test results are encouraging as they suggest that both cobalt-rich and silver-rich mineralisation styles may be processed using similar flowsheets. The Cobalt Camp is rich with muckpiles located in proximity to historic mines and they provide an opportunity to study discarded material previously mined underground without the additional cost of drilling. The results of this study support further work to assess the muckpiles for processing, and they could potentially be a future source of initial ore,” stated president and CEO Trent Mell in a news release.
Cobalt prices are up 144% year-on-year on rising battery production and the tightening supply of raw materials, specifically battery chemicals. Political instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo also continues to jeopardise half of the world's cobalt supply.