PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Sconi cobalt/nickel/scandium project, in Queensland, will come under the microscope after the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) board indicated it would move to investigate the potential to provide support for the project.
The NAIF provides access for up to A$5-billion of finance, which could be on concessional terms to support infrastructure development that generates public benefit for northern Australia.
ASX-listed Australian Mines has appealed to the NAIF for financial assistance to develop Sconi, and has progressed through the enquiry, preliminary assessment and strategic assessment stages, and is now in the due diligence phase.
The next step for Australian Mines is now to provide detailed due diligence materials to NAIF for review, and to submit its formal investment proposal.
“I am pleased that the NAIF board is considering potential funding support for Sconi, our flagship cobalt/nickel/scandium project in Northern Queensland,” said Australian Mines MD Benjamin Bell.
“The project has the potential to provide significant upgrades of existing infrastructure located within the Greenvale region within Northern Queensland and 90% of its ongoing annual operational expenditure is expected to be with local businesses.”
A previous prefeasibility study on the Sconi project has confirmed that it could potentially produce an estimated 3 010 t of cobalt sulphate, 24 420 t of nickel sulphate and 77 t of scandium oxide over at least the first 20 years.