The year 2016 may have been the year for zinc, but 2017 and 2018 appear to be the year for more obscure technology metals and minerals like cobalt, lithium, nickel and graphite, which are critical for such high-tech applications as lithium batteries for electric vehicles and large storage batteries. Here are four examples of companies active in the base metals and technology metals space.
ECOBALT ENERGY SOLUTIONS
ECobalt Solutions (TSX: ECS; US-OTC: ECSIF) is advancing its wholly owned Idaho Cobalt Project (ICP) near Salmon in east-central Idaho within the Idaho cobalt belt.
ECobalt describes ICP as the only near-term, environmentally permitted primary cobalt project in the United States. There is also extensive infrastructure in place.
Some US$120 million has been spent on the site so far, and 12.5 years of mine life have been defined.
Workers at eCobalt Solutions’ ICP cobalt project in Idaho. Credit: eCobalt Solutions.
This year, eCobalt plans to finalize an optimized feasibility study; advance due diligence with a potential off-take partner; ship a bulk sample for pilot testing; continue mine pre-construction activities; and build up a production-ready team.
If all goes well, eCobalt could begin mine construction in the third quarter of 2018 and enter full production in 2020.
Total proven and probable reserves at ICP are 3.66 million tons (3.32 million tonnes) grading 0.47% cobalt, 0.68% copper and 0.016 oz. gold per ton for a contained 34.5 million lb. cobalt, 50 million lb. copper and 53,300 oz. gold.
Measured and indicated resources at ICP stand at 3.87 million tons (3.51 million tonnes) grading 0.59% cobalt, 0.95% copper and 0.017 oz. gold per ton. Another 1.82 million tons lie in the inferred category at slightly lower grades.
At last count, eCobalt had $12.6 million in cash and equivalents and no debt.
FIRST COBALT
Led by president and CEO Trent Mell, Toronto-based First Cobalt (TSXV: FCC; US-OTC: FTSSF) bills itself as the largest cobalt exploration company in the world, and aims to create the world’s “largest pure-play cobalt exploration and development company.”
Though it was only formed in early 2017, First Cobalt has already accumulated over 100 sq. km of prospective ground in Ontario’s iconic Cobalt camp, with the company’s Greater Cobalt Project comprising land that includes over 50 past-producing mines, a mill and the only permitted cobalt refinery in North America that makes battery materials.
The company began its first drilling campaign in the Cobalt camp in August.
In February, First Cobalt announced it had begun drilling in the Cobalt North target at the Greater Cobalt Project, near the historic Drummond, Kerr and Conisil mines.
The program finished a maiden drill program in Cobalt South that First Cobalt says found three mineralized areas that will require follow up.
The company sees the following highlights in its recent work: three mineralized areas identified in Cobalt South to date — Woods Extension Zone, Keeley South Zone and Bellellen Mine; an initial Cobalt North drill program to consist of 16 holes for 3,500 metres to follow up on polymetallic mineralization found in muckpile grab samples that returned grades of up to 0.65% cobalt, with 4,990 grams silver per tonne and up to 1.79% copper with 56 grams silver; and drill-hole targeting in Cobalt North guided by a new 3-D geological model based on historic data compilation and 2017 regional field mapping.
FORTUNE MINERALS
Fortune Minerals (TSX: FT; US-OTC: FTMDF) is another Canadian junior riding the recent cobalt wave.
Fortune is advancing its vertically integrated NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper project, which is comprised of a proposed mine and mill in the Northwest Territories that will produce a bulk concentrate for shipment to a refinery that the company plans to build in Saskatchewan.
Fortune says the products that will be produced at the refinery include cobalt chemicals used to make high performance rechargeable batteries, bismuth metals and chemicals, as well as gold.
With all its assets located in North America, Fortune wants to become a reliable producer of products that are “critical to a growing world economy and otherwise subject to supply chain risks from political and/or policy uncertainty and concentration of supply.”
Fortune also owns the Sue-Dianne copper-silver-gold deposit and other exploration projects in the Northwest Territories, and has the right to repurchase the Arctos anthracite coal deposits in northwest B.C. that were previously bought by a B.C. Crown corporation, after the project was opposed by local First Nations.
MINFOCUS EXPLORATION
Toronto-based junior explorer Minfocus Exploration (TSXV: MFX) is advancing a portfolio of zinc projects in British Columbia, and has a platinum group metals-rich nickel project in northwestern Ontario.
A prospector inspects a zinc-mineralized trench on Minfocus Exploration’s Coral zinc property in northeast British Columbia. Credit: Minfocus Exploration.
Minfocus notes that its management group has a track record of multiple mineral discoveries worldwide, including gold and uranium deposits in Mongolia and PGMs in Ontario, as well as success in corporate development, M&A and project development.
Minfocus says its corporate strategy is to: explore for metals in highest demand, which was zinc and lead in mid-2017; focus its search in jurisdictions with low political and social risk; target areas with good logistics and superior development potential; and explore deposits to maximum value, and encourage majors to participate.
In September Minfocus finished the initial field program at its Mississippi Valley-type Peregrine zinc property in southeastern British Columbia. The work relocated an area of historic trenching, from which several samples were collected assaying 13% to 35.9% zinc. Minfocus’ geochemical soil survey showed a strong zinc anomaly extending over the entire 650 metres of the surveyed area.
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