Blackstone Minerals | INN

These milestones embrace a memorandum of understanding with Cavico Laos Mining to collaborate in numerous areas related to CLM’s nickel mine in Lao Individuals’s Democratic Republic and provide of nickel merchandise for Blackstone’s Ta Khoa Refinery in Vietnam.

Blackstone additionally partnered with Arca Local weather Applied sciences to additional examine the carbon seize potential on the Ta Khoa Venture by carbon mineralisation, and discover alternatives to utilise Arca’s carbon seize applied sciences throughout the challenge.

In a bid to collaborate on the availability of renewable wind vitality to the Ta Khoa Venture, Blackstone signed a direct energy buy settlement with Limes Renewables Power.

Blackstone obtained AU$2.8 million as an advance from a analysis & improvement (R&D) lending fund backed by Uneven Innovation Finance and Fiftyone Capital. The superior fee displays the numerous funding by Blackstone to develop the Ta Khoa Refinery course of and Blackstone’s distinctive technique to convert nickel focus blends into battery merchandise within the type of precursor cathode energetic materials (pCAM).

In December 2023, Blackstone entered into an choice settlement with CaNickel Mining to amass the Wabowden nickel challengepositioned within the world-class Thompson Nickel Belt in Manitoba, Canada.

The Wabowden challenge can have the potential to fill the Ta Khoa Refinery, eradicating dependence on third occasion feed sources.

The corporate has signed a non-binding MOU with the Improvement for Assets Environmental Know-how joint inventory firm (DRET) to analyze alternatives to repurpose and commerce waste materials (or residue) from the Ta Khoa Refinery into development materials merchandise. Furthermore, it has additionally progressed the Ta Khoa Refinery byproduct offtake technique with Vietnam Chemical Group (VinaChem), PV Chemical and Tools Company (PVChem) and Nam Phong Inexperienced Joint Inventory Firm (Nam Phong) to promote Ta Khoa Refinery byproducts, being manganese sulphate (or epsomite) and sodium sulphate.

As the corporate plans to construct a world nickel enterprise, Blackstone signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Yulho Co. Ltd (Yulho) and EN Plus Co. Ltd (EN Plus) to determine a collaboration throughout the companies together with EN Plus and Yulho who’re in three way partnership on the Ntaka Hill nickel sulphide challenge in Tanzania, and the Dinagat Island nickel laterite challenge within the Philippines.

Firm Highlights

• The worldwide nickel market is at present getting into a structural deficit, with demand anticipated to develop 950 p.c by 2040.
• Blackstone Minerals is well-positioned to deal with this deficit as a vertically built-in producer of low-cost, low-carbon nickel.
• Blackstone’s flagship challenge Ta Khoa is a brownfield challenge located in Vietnam, one of many lowest capital value international locations on this planet and an rising hub for the electrical car market with huge reserves of nickel.
• Vietnam is an more and more engaging area for funding with direct international investments that grew from $1.3 billion in 2000 to $15.6 billion in 2020.
• The Ta Khoa challenge additionally has infrastructure benefits, by way of the present Ban Phuc mine, and processing services, entry to low-cost and underutilized hydroelectricity, a educated labor drive and help from the native authorities.
• Blackstone Minerals’ downstream pre-feasibility examine confirms a technically and economically strong hydrometallurgical refining course of to improve nickel sulphide focus to supply battery-grade nickel.
• Blackstone’s key nickel and cobalt feedstocks for the Ta Khoa Refinery Pilot program have been delivered to the metallurgical laboratory in Western Australia as of April 2022.

Blackstone holds a 90 p.c curiosity within the Ta Khoa Nickel-Copper-PGE Venture, positioned 160 kilometers west of Hanoi within the Son La Province of Vietnam. It contains an present trendy nickel mine constructed to Australian Requirements, which is at present beneath care and upkeep. The Ban Phuc nickel mine efficiently operated as a mechanized underground nickel mine from 2013 to 2016.

Blackstone intends to enrich the present mine by the set up of a big concentrator, refinery and precursor facility, supporting built-in on-site manufacturing of nickel, cobalt and manganese precursor merchandise for the Asia-Pacific market. One among Blackstone’s key Analysis and Improvement goals with Ta Khoa is to develop a flowsheet that can help this manufacturing.

To satisfy this purpose, Blackstone is specializing in a partnership mannequin, collaborating with teams dedicated to sustainable mining. It’s also working to attenuate its carbon footprint and implement a vertically built-in provide chain.

Venture Highlights:

• A number of Huge Sulphide Deposits: The Ta Khoa challenge options a number of extremely promising deposits together with King Snake (as much as 4.3 p.c nickel and 18.2 grams per ton (g/t) PGE), Sui Phong (2.95 meters @ 2.42 p.c nickel, 0.52 p.c copper, 0.06 p.c cobalt and 0.05 g/t PGE), and Ban Chang. The challenge can be the location of the Ban Phuc nickel mine, which was operated from 2013 to 2016 by Asia Mineral Assets, together with a number of exploration targets which have but to be examined.
• Skilled Management: Internally, Blackstone’s house owners’ group brings over 50 years of expertise in management roles at main nickel mines and refineries globally. This expertise has been complemented by ALS Group, Wooden, Future Battery Industries CRC, Curtin College and the Electrical Mining Consortium.
• Massive Reserve and Mining Stock: Everything of Ta Khoa is estimated to include possible reserves of 48.7 Mt at 0.43 p.c nickel for 210 kilotons (kt) of nickel and a mining stock of 64.5 Mt at 0.41 p.c nickel for 265 kt nickel. This excludes Ban Khoa and different growing prospects.
• A Lengthy-lived Venture: The Ta Khoa mine is predicted to supply a yearly common of 18 kt of annual nickel focus over its ten-year lifespan. Blackstone believes the refinery can probably lengthen its life previous ten years.
• An Established Mining Operation: Present infrastructure onsite features a 450 ktpa Mill and mining camp. The mine will even profit from a extremely supportive neighborhood and favorable authorities laws — Blackstone is dedicated to collaborating with neighborhood stakeholders within the challenge’s improvement.
• Feed Flexibility: Ta Khoa’s refinery will supply a number of feed choices, together with nickel focus, combined hydroxide precipitate, nickel matte and black mass. This flexibility enormously improves the safety and enormously reduces the chance of the challenge total.
• Valued Partnerships: Blackstone is collaborating with a number of trade leaders and teams within the improvement of Ta Khoa
• Compelling Pre-feasibility Examine: The monetary outcomes of a base case pre-feasibility examine on the challenge are promising. Based mostly on a conservative NCM811 precursor worth forecast, Ta Khoa shows an distinctive inner return price on capital invested.
• Built-in Vertical Technique: Blackstone is setting up each the Ta Khoa mine and refinery in opposition to a extremely supportive ESG, macroeconomic and monetary backdrop. This together with Ta Khoa’s low capital depth provides the corporate a major benefit over rivals. Stated low depth is the results of a number of elements, together with aggressive labor prices, favorable rules and low-cost renewable hydroelectric energy.
• A Chief in Low Emissions: Impartial assessments from Digbee, Minviro and Circulor, alongside an audit from the Nickel Institute, have confirmed that Ta Khoa would be the lowest-emitting flowsheet within the trade, at 9.8 kilograms of CO2 per kilogram of precursor with alternatives for even additional discount.
• Promising Pilots: With the help of ALS and course of engineering companion Wooden, Blackstone just lately accomplished a 12-month programme of labor that developed a scaled model of its focus to sulphate flowsheet. The refinery, which processed greater than 9 tonnes of focus and MHP, efficiently achieved battery-grade nickel sulphate of 99.95 p.c, with a nickel restoration price of 97 p.c.
• Present Roadmap: Blackstone’s subsequent precedence is to finish a sequence of definitive feasibility research. As soon as these are full, it can deal with absolutely integrating the mine into the electrical car shopper provide chain and finalizing its refining partnership construction.

Administration Crew

Hamish Halliday – Non-executive Chairman

Hamish Halliday is a geologist with over 20 years of company and technical expertise. He’s additionally the founding father of Adamus Assets Restricted, an AU$3 million float that turned a multimillion-ounce rising gold producer.

Scott Williamson – Managing Director

Scott Williamson is a mining engineer with a commerce diploma from the West Australian Faculty of Mines and Curtin College. He has over 10 years of expertise in technical and company roles within the mining and finance sectors.

Dr. Frank Bierlein – Non-executive Director

Dr. Frank Bierlein is a geologist with 30 years of technical and company expertise, specializing in grassroots to mine-stage mineral exploration, goal era, challenge administration and oversight, due diligence research, mineral prospectivity evaluation, metallogenic framework research and mineral assets market and funding evaluation.

Alison Gaines – Non-executive Director

Alison Gaines has over 20 years of expertise as a director in Australia and internationally. She has expertise within the roles of board chair and board committee chair, significantly remuneration and nomination and governance committees. She can be the managing director of Gaines Advisory P/L and was just lately international CEO of worldwide search and board consulting agency Gerard Daniels, with a major mining and vitality apply.

Gaines has a Bachelor of Legal guidelines and a Bachelor of Arts (hons) from the College of Western Australia, a Graduate Diploma in Authorized Follow from Australian Nationwide College and an honorary doctorate of the College and Grasp of Arts (Public Coverage) from Murdoch College. She is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Firm Administrators and holds the INSEAD certificates in company governance. She is at present the governor of the Faculty of Legislation Ltd, and non-executive director of Tura New Music.

Dan Lougher – Non-executive Director

Daniel Lougher’s profession spans greater than 40 years involving a variety of exploration, feasibility, improvement, operations and company roles with Australian and worldwide mining corporations together with a interval of eighteen years spent in Africa with BHP Billiton, Impala Plats, Anglo American and Genmin. He was the managing director and chief govt officer of the profitable Australian nickel miner Western Areas Ltd till its takeover by Independence Group.

Lougher additionally holds a firstclass mine supervisor’s certificates of competency (WA) and is a fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM). Lougher is the chair of the corporate’s technical committee and nomination committee.

Jamie Byrde – CFO and Firm Secretary

Jamie Byrde has over 16 yr’s expertise in company advisory, private and non-private firm administration since commencing his profession with huge 4 and mid-tier chartered accounting companies positions. Byrde makes a speciality of monetary administration, ASX and ASIC compliance and company governance of mineral and useful resource centered public corporations. He’s additionally at present firm secretary for Enterprise Minerals Restricted.

Tessa Kutscher – Government

Tessa Kutscher is an govt with greater than 20 years of expertise in working with C-Stage govt groups within the fields of enterprise technique, enterprise planning/optimisation and alter administration. After beginning her profession in Germany, she has labored internationally throughout completely different industries, corresponding to mining, finance, tourism and tertiary training.

Kutscher holds a grasp’s diploma in literature, linguistics and political science from the College of Bonn, Germany and a grasp’s diploma in educating from Ludwig Maximilian College of Munich.

Andrew Strickland – Government

Andrew Strickland is an skilled examine and challenge supervisor, a fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, College of WA MBA graduate, with undergraduate levels in chemical engineering and extractive metallurgy from Curtin and WASM.

Earlier than becoming a member of Blackstone, Strickland was a senior examine supervisor for GR Engineering Providers the place he was liable for delivering a sequence of scoping, PFS and DFS research for each Australian and worldwide tasks. Over his profession, he has held quite a lot of challenge improvement roles throughout each junior to mid-tier builders (together with Straits Assets, Perseus Mining and Tiger Assets) and main multi-operation producers (South32).

Graham Rigo – Government

Graham Rigo is an skilled examine supervisor with over a decade of on-site manufacturing expertise, holding undergraduate levels in chemical engineering and finance from Curtin College, WA.

Earlier than becoming a member of Blackstone, Rigo was a examine supervisor for Ausenco the place he was liable for delivering a sequence of scoping, PFS and DFS research for each Australian and worldwide tasks over a variety of various commodities.

Rigo has over 11 years of web site expertise in nickel and cobalt hydromet manufacturing expertise, in supervisory/superintendent degree roles in addition to course of engineer expertise.

Lon Taranaki – Government

Lon Taranaki is a world mining skilled with over 25 years of in depth expertise in all elements of assets and mining, feasibility, improvement and operations. Taranaki is a professional course of engineer from the College of Queensland Australia. He holds a Grasp of Enterprise Administration, and is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Firm Administrators. Taranaki has established his profession in Asia the place he has efficiently labored (and lived) throughout a number of jurisdictions and commodities starting from technical, mine administration and govt administration roles.

Previous to becoming a member of Blackstone in February 2022, Taranaki was the chief govt officer of Minegenco, a renewable-energy-focused unbiased energy producer. Previous this, he was managing director of his personal consultancy, AMG Mining World, the place he was offering companies to the mining trade in Singapore, Guyana, Indonesia and Cambodia. Moreover, Taranaki has held numerous senior positions with Sakari Assets, PTT Asia Pacific Mining, Straits Assets, Sedgmans and BHP Coal.