Name of the Project
Thackaringa cobalt project.

Location
Western New South Wales, in Australia.

Project Owner/s
Broken Hill Prospecting Limited (BPL 30%) and Cobalt Blue Holdings (70%).

Project Description
Thackaringa has proven and probable reserves of 46.3-million tonnes grading 819 parts per million of cobalt. Using the mining ore reserve, an initial mine life of 9.3 years has been delineated for the project. The mine is expected to produce about 3 657 t/y of metal in sulphate. Total life-of-mine production is estimated at 32 453 t/y of cobalt metal in sulphate.

A prefeasibility study (PFS) has proposed the development of the site through the exploitation of the Pyrite Hill, Big Hill and Railway cobaltiferous pyrite deposits. Four opencut mining pits, a plant treating ore and producing cobalt sulphate heptahydrate crystals and associated by-products, a tailings storage facility (TSF) and supplementary infrastructure will be used as required. The project will use openpit mining methods, adopting a conventional truck/excavator operation. The load-and-haul and drill-and-blast operations are proposed to be run by contractors.

The processing plant will have a capacity of 5.25-million tonnes a year, following commissioning. The proposed TSF is required to provide future capacity for the storage of filtered and compacted tailings from the extracted minerals of the pits on site. The project involves mining and processing with a production rate generating an estimated 4.8-million tonnes a year of tailings.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of A$792-million and an internal rate of return of 27%, with a payback of four years.

Capital Expenditure
Capital expenditure is estimated at A$550-million.

Planned Start /End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
The tug-of-war between JV partners Broken Hill Prospecting and Cobalt Blue over the Thackaringa cobalt project has intensified.

Broken Hill has rejected claims by Cobalt Blue that its interest in the JV has fallen to below 5%, the minimum interest specified in the JV agreement, and has been ‘deemed’ to have withdrawn from the JV, leaving Broken Hill to surrender its JV interest to Cobalt Blue.

Broken Hill maintains that its 30% interest in the JV remains, with the company claiming 100% legal ownership on the tenements on which the project is based, as well as holding all the base and precious metals rights to the project.

Further, Broken Hill contends that it is due a 2% net smelter royalty on all future production from the JV project.

The JV parties have been at odds about the Thackaringa JV after failing to agree on a suitable timeframe for bankable feasibility study (BFS) work at Thackaringa, with Cobalt Blue deciding to opt out of the earn-in period process of a previous farm-in agreement, which would have required a BFS by mid-2019.

Broken Hill last year issued Cobalt Blue a notice of dispute over the start of drilling activities at Thackaringa, which it said was done outside of the requisite approval process set out in the JV.

Borken Hill has issued a new dispute notice pertaining to the dilution claims.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Cobalt Blue Holdings, tel +61 2 9966 5629 or email info@cobaltblueholdings.com.