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Having completed a PFS on an integrated operation earlier this year, Blackstone has entered DFS
mode for both the upstream and downstream potential at its Ta Khoa nickel project in Vietnam

number [in the PFS] port credit agencies, particularly out of precursor material received a major boost
and they think we’re South Korea, but also from areas where last month when a life-cycle assessment
going to do it all our- we might bring feedstock in and where the by leading industry practitioner Minviro
selves, which is very actual final product might land,” he said. validated the company’s flowsheet. The
much not the case. “This is one of the benefits of being in an study found the carbon dioxide levels were
We’re going to split emerging market like Vietnam and in a fu- “substantially lower” than existing produc-
that capital up with ture-facing commodity which is in so much tion pathways and identified known oppor-
our partners and work demand from governments all around the tunities to reduce those emissions even
out exactly how much world. We just need to get to a point now further.
is coming from those where we’ve locked in those partnerships Williamson said the demand for bona
partners, and then we and we can then start moving on what the fide “green” nickel producers had never
can start to build it. debt looks like.” been greater.
“We’ve been pun- Williamson also said negotiations with “The car manufacturers are basically
ished a little bit in the potential third-party concentrate produc- now saying their preference is not to go
market because of the ers to fill the remaining 50% of the feed- anywhere near Indonesia and that’s why
lack of progress with stock for Ta Khoa remain ongoing. there’s a big focus on clean, green nickel,”
respect to those part- Blackstone’s vision to be recognised he said.
nerships, but that’s as a low-emission producer of NCM-811 “Probably the main difference between
fine. We’ll cop that and move forward.” when we started and now is that very
Blackstone has appointed leading en- quickly the car manufacturers are starting
gineering firms Wood Group plc and GR to realise that not every nickel unit is equal
Engineering Services Ltd for the respec- and you need to be counting your carbon
tive downstream and upstream aspects of and all your other ESG credentials as well.
the DFS. I’m excited because the car manufactur-
The company has also engaged the ers are seeing that Indonesia is not the
Korean Development Bank and Burnvoir answer to all of their prayers.
Corporate Finance to investigate debt “There’s a lot of nickel in Indonesia, but
funding options for the project. Williamson not all of it will end up in European or US-
said the financing strategy would almost made EVs.”
certainly differ to that of a conventional
Australian nickel project. – Michael Washbourne
“We’re seeing a lot of support from ex- Scott Williamson

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT OCTOBeR 2022 Page 103