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NICKEL CONFERENCE REVIEW

Blackstone hitting the right notes

lackstone Minerals Ltd is putting its ex- dictions – Australia and Canada – where
Bploration nous to good use in northern the company also has projects.
Vietnam. “Vietnam has a culture where you can
Having taken the former Ta Khoa min- get things done to an Australian standard,
ing operation under its wings mid-year, the albeit a lot cheaper. One of the benefits
company is finding out that not only was it of going into a place in the world that is
left with a project flush with infrastructure, emerging is that we can get some of the
but a wealth of exploration opportunities. lowest labour costs in the world. Even with
Stockbrokers visiting Ta Khoa in the a higher tariff in place they were looking at
past couple of months have been im- 25% lower operating costs [$US136/t] than
pressed by the plus-$US130 million worth an equivalent mine in Australia or Cana-
of infrastructure in place and the work be- da,” Williamson said.
ing done through the drill bit by Blackstone “This is driven by the hydro grid power,
is also starting to get wider attention in the so there are very low power costs and la-
market. bour costs. The nickel price during the pe-
Prior to announcing its participation in riod when it was operating, unfortunately
Ta Khoa, Blackstone was trading at 6c/ the nickel price had a small kick when they
share before reaching a 2019 high of 19c/ commissioned then it was in free fall. It
share (September). At the time of print, closed at the bottom of the market amid
Blackstone had settled at about 14c/share, some of the lowest nickel prices seen over
as second round drilling results started to Scott Williamson the last 10 years.”
filter through from the Ban Phuc mine. Forecasts suggest that nickel is set for a
Blackstone’s maiden drilling has con- Nickel Conference. period of sustainability as stockpiles dwin-
firmed a significant unmined disseminat- “The previous owners mined the mas- dle and little supply of Class 1 nickel ready
ed sulphide zone at Ban Phuc, the latest sive sulphide vein at Ban Phuc. Right next to come online.
six drill holes including hits of: 16.6m @ to that Ban Phuc massive sulphide vein Therefore, the next 6-12 months could
0.34% nickel, 0.04% copper, 0.01% cobalt sits a 1.5km by 0.5km disseminated nickel be company-defining for Blackstone as it
and 0.07 g/t PGE from 104.4m; 15.8m @ sulphide orebody. There is a significant looks to complete a scoping study includ-
0.57% nickel, 0.07% copper, 0.01% cobalt amount of nickel metal left behind within ing a concentrator upgrade and down-
and 0.26 g/t PGE from 118.2m; 27.7m @ hundreds of metres of the concentra- stream processing to produce a nickel
0.88% nickel, 0.09% copper, 0.01% cobalt tor and within hundreds of metres of the sulphate and effectively reduce the tariff
and 0.74 g/t PGE from 101m; 29.4m @ 1% underground infrastructure. The vein has requirements.
nickel, 0.12% copper, 0.02% cobalt and been mined, left behind is this disseminat- Meanwhile, a maiden resource at the
0.6 g/t PGE from 140.6m; 11.9m @ 1.46% ed system running up to 1% nickel.” Ban Phuc disseminated prospect is being
nickel, 0.15% copper, 0.02% cobalt and Williamson said that continuing to hit targeted as the economic potential of an
1.09 g/t PGE from 107m; 33.3m @ 0.8% disseminated material would potentially open pit or underground mining scenario
nickel, 0.09% copper, 0.01% cobalt and steer the project down a long life, profit- is assessed.
0.37 g/t PGE from 136.9m. able existence. Williamson said the company would
The state of the nickel market between Williamson’s bullishness on the project also be seeking strategic partners to help
2013-2016, when Ban Phuc was last has only intensified in recent times, given with funding for drilling and feasibility stud-
mined, meant previous owners were ham- the potential economic reality of platinum/ ies to take advantage of the opportunity in
strung, forced into finding ways to produce palladium plus gold credits not considered front of it at Ta Khoa.
cash flow rather than focusing on the lon- before. “Everything is done to Australian stand-
gevity of the operation. “Platinum and palladium were not as- ards, the two portals are as good as any
Therefore, Blackstone appears to now sayed for previously and a real game- underground mine you will see in the
be capitalising on the untapped potential changer for us is seeing up to 1 g/t plati- world. There is a 250-person camp, very
at Ban Phuc where 975,000t @ 2.4% nick- num plus palladium plus gold. This could good recoveries out of that concentrator
el and 1% copper for 20,700t nickel and be significant and could cover a lot of the in the past and that [450,000 tpa] concen-
10,100t copper was produced when it last operating costs. We’ll continue to keep ex- trator can be turned on very easily we be-
operated. ploring for platinum and palladium that sits lieve,” Williamson said.
“The previous owners were focused through this system and this could really “We think with our strategy we might
on finishing the mine and not on drilling change the economics of the disseminat- need to upgrade the concentrator and
ahead of themselves, so we come in there ed [material],” Williamson said. there could be potential for a second mill
as explorers and see so much potential to Having recently tapped the market for and some further float cells, but we can
restart the mine. It generated a significant $4.5 million, Blackstone is poised to con- leverage off all that infrastructure that is in
amount of revenue [$US213 million] and tinue drilling at Ban Phuc with no less than place. It is built by Australians to Australian
over $US130 million has been invested in four rigs. standard in Vietnam.”
infrastructure that we don’t have to find,” Williamson said the costs of operating in
Blackstone managing director Scott Wil- Vietnam meant Blackstone could stretch – Mark Andrews
liamson told delegates at the Australian its dollar a lot further than in the other juris-

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