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Blackstone eyes ‘Big Bertha’

lackstone Minerals Ltd will collaborate before the end of the year, with maiden re- years. Key financial estimates included
Bwith the Vietnamese Government to source estimates for the Ban Chang and a post-tax NPV of $US2.01 billion, IRR of
identify new nickel opportunities outside of King Snake deposits also expected this 67%, life-of-mine revenue of $US14 billion
the company’s current Ta Khoa district ten- quarter. and average annual operating cash flow of
ement holdings in the north of the country. It comes after the company published $US451 million.
During last month’s Australian Nickel a positive PFS for a downstream refinery “Really, it’s this downstream business
Conference, Blackstone announced its at Ta Khoa, taking feed from its own Ban that sets us apart from all of our peers,” Wil-
90%-owned subsidiary Ban Phuc Nickel Phuc, Ban Chang and King Snake depos- liamson said.
Mines was joining forces with Vietnam’s its, as well as third-party nickel concentrate “We’re going to bring nickel from Aus-
General Department of Geology & Miner- from multinational trading house Trafigura tralia, Canada, Africa, all around the world,
als. Initially, both parties will undertake a and other potential upstream producers. into this globally significant refining busi-
new geophysics programme to advance Assuming a base-case refining capacity ness, and we’re going to do it with the low-
the Chim Van target, only 10km from the est power costs in the industry and some of
large Ban Phuc open pit deposit. the most competitive labour costs as well.”
According to the company, Chim Van Williamson said his company was also
features a large magnetic anomaly which keen to take advantage of the $US20 billion
“may reflect the presence of an ultramafic- already invested in the district around Ta
mafic intrusion an order of magnitude larger Khoa by the likes of Samsung, LG and local
than the Ban Phuc ultramafic intrusion”. EV company Vinfast which is imminently
For that reason, Blackstone managing di- set to list on the NASDAQ via a $US60 bil-
rector Scott Williamson has already coined lion IPO.
a new nickname for Chim Van. “I can tell you that we’re a long way from
“I’m going to nickname it ‘The Big Bertha’ building electric vehicles down at Kwinana,”
because Ban Phuc is 280,000t of nickel, he said. “This is happening today, right on
and Chim Van is 15 times the size,” William- our doorstep. This is unprecedented what
son said. Scott williamson we’re seeing here, there’s a good reason
“It’s early days…but it’s 15 times the size why [it has] a lot of interest.”
of our main flagship asset so keep a close Blackstone is aiming to complete a DFS
eye on that one because that could be the of 400,000 tpa, the downstream PFS indi- on the downstream refinery next year
future of the company right there.” cated Blackstone could produce an aver- ahead of its targeted first production of the
Blackstone remains on track to complete age 43,500 tpa refined nickel and 85,600 NCM-811 precursor material in 2024.
a PFS for its upstream mining business tpa NCM-811 precursor material over 10
– Michael Washbourne

The silver nickel lining coveries coming out of this area over the
next few years,” Jones said.
“We’re on the ground right now with
follow-up soil programmes but have some
ometimes blessings really do come in extensive landowner negotiations to get
Sdisguises and that much is true for Im- through. Although, I’m 100% confident
pact Minerals Ltd after COVID-19 sent the we’re going to have multiple drill targets
company packing its bags in New South here in 2022.”
Wales and coming back home to Western Results at Arkun also surprisingly yielded
Australia to explore south-east of the Juli- some lithium-caesium-tantalum pegma-
mar discovery. tites, which Jones said the company would
Impact had planned an extensive drill also follow up.
programme at its Broken Hill nickel-cop- In the meantime, Impact plans to resume
per-PGE project, but has since pulled up drilling at Broken Hill next year, especially
encouraging soil geochemical anomalies after NSW has begun reopening following
from the Arkun nickel-copper-PGM project a highly publicised outbreak of the Delta
between York and Perth. Michael Jones strain.
“On the back of the Julimar discovery, The company hopes to drill 5,000m of
we’re fairly late to the piece, but this pro- using and we’ve kind of gone berserk and diamond and RC holes, targeting the Plati-
ject was brought to us,” Impact managing pegged a whole lot more ground through- num Springs, Red Hill and Little Broken Hill
director Michael Jones told the Australian out WA and there will be more of that to Gabbro targets.
Nickel Conference. “There were some re- come shortly.” Jones’ excitement over the WA work
gional soil geochemical anomalies from the Impact increased its land holding at ahead was evident.
CSIRO database and some private work Arkun to 1,900sq km after Anglo Ameri- “We’re in the middle of a pivot, back to
that had been done. We then pegged that can Plc staked a whopping 10,130sq km of WA, rationalising our eastern states hold-
ground and have recognised 17 targets for ground, wrapping around the smaller ex- ings,” he said. “We’ve been around for a
nickel-copper sulphides. plorer’s position. while. Whatever you do, keep going and
“We’ve had six of them come in with “There are hundreds of magnetic anoma- never give up before you get to the end –
very significant numbers for nickel-cop- lies through this southwest range that have provided you’re in the right area.”
per-platinum-palladium and gold. We’re never been touched…we will see more dis-
pretty pleased with the technology we’re – Fraser Palamara

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT NOVeMBeR 2021 Page 45