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NICKel CoNFeReNCe PReVIeW

Blackstone revs up

t is rare for a junior company to be able think the price would move as soon as it have never been explored before through
Ito consider downstream processing op- has. We welcome that, but we don’t want modern geophysics, including EM and
portunities immediately after setting foot the price to get too far ahead of itself ei- IP. IP helps us to look for disseminated
on a project but Blackstone Minerals Ltd ther, like the problem we had with cobalt; sulphide and then the EM helps us with
finds itself in such a position at the Ta it did get ahead of itself, and then it all the massive sulphide and then between
Khoa nickel sulphide project in Vietnam. ended in tears,” Williamson said. the two of them we should be able to
The company landed the project in “We prefer not to go through that situ- unlock new zones that have never been
May and has since hosted three site vis- ation again, but it seems this nickel price tested before,” Williamson said.
its, showcasing to eight different broking run is more sustainable because it is Last month, maiden PGE assays from
firms what previous owners had left be- demand and supply driven and the sup- the first three holes drilled by the com-
hind. ply can’t kick in as quick as what we saw pany at Ta Khoa returned platinum/pal-
A $4.5 million placement to institu- with cobalt.” ladium and gold assays from within the
tional, sophisticated and professional in- Blackstone appears to have the timing disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisa-
vestors, plus a $500,000 SPP to eligible right at Ta Khoa and the recent capital tion.
shareholders, announced last month Ban Phuc, the main orebody at Ta
indicates the level of support Black- Khoa, delivered peak assays of 3.4%
stone has managed to conjure. nickel and 2 g/t PGE.
“It is an impressive bit of infrastruc- Ta Khoa was last in operation from
ture that we have got, we have the 2013-2016, with 975,000t @ 2.4%
concentrator in place, there is a signif- nickel and 1% copper mined for pro-
icant amount of nickel left behind and duction of 20,700t nickel and 10,100t
now we can look at the downstream copper.
process to produce the nickel sul- Williamson said the company would
phate,” Blackstone managing director continue to drill out the Ban Phuc
Scott Williamson told Paydirt. disseminated material plus test new
“It is a unique situation where a jun- targets within a 5km radius of the
ior can look to go downstream and it processing plant, while an extensive
is because of all that sunk capital of geophysical programme was also in
$130 million that the previous owner the pipeline.
spent. That allows us to look at the Meanwhile, he added that Black-
next circa $100 million that’s required stone was on board with Vietnam’s
to produce a nickel sulphate.” playbook of insisting that no unpro-
Being located in Vietnam also cessed ore or intermediate product be
means Blackstone is on the doorstep shipped from the country.
of Asia’s expanding lithium-ion battery “They are forcing us to produce a
industry, namely China, Japan and downstream product, but they are do-
South Korea, with groups in those ju- ing it through a 20% tariff on concen-
risdictions identified for potential part- trate, so they are already in-line with
nerships. what Indonesia and Philippines are
“We’re keen to work with those battery Scott Williamson looking at. There are no surprises with
end-users to look at JV arrangements that and it is one of the reasons we
where we share some of that [$100 are looking at downstream processing
million] funding costs over the coming injection allows the company an unob- because it allows us to remove the tariff
years. The idea is that we bring in a bat- structed pathway to better understand- and also access the battery market,” Wil-
tery end-user at some stage to help us ing the geology, mining and metallurgy liamson said.
with our funding and we will continue to over the next 6-12 months. “They are definitely keen for mining,
have full exposure at the mine level, but At the time of print more drill rigs were but also for miners to do the downstream
share the downstream processing facil- on the way to Ta Khoa, with Blackstone processing and we are on board with
ity; that is our current thinking,” William- working towards a maiden resource/re- that as we are keen to develop the tech-
son said. serve and scoping study to give the mar- nology and develop a nickel sulphate.
Through cobalt in Canada and nickel in ket a better understanding on timelines That then allows us to increase payabili-
Western Australia, Blackstone has been and valuations. ties, reduce or remove the tariff and im-
suitably exposed to the battery minerals Despite the demand to switch nickel prove the economics so there are many
sector and while the demand thematic of projects back on in light of situations reasons why we want to do it, regardless
such minerals has been known, William- emanating from Indonesia and the Phil- of the fact that the Government is push-
son said the nature of the nickel price run ippines, Williamson said the company ing us that way.”
was not foreseen. wouldn’t be rushed and that exploration
“We could see that the nickel demand was also an important part of the strat- – Mark Andrews
was coming. The supply situation obvi- egy.
ously came out of nowhere and we didn’t “We’ll continue to test new zones that

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