Work on the Mt Thirsty cobalt-nickel-oxide project is gaining momentum with joint venture partners Barra Resources and Conico locking in contracts for the Pre-Feasibility Study for the Western Australian project.
AMEC Foster Wheeler Australia – a subsidiary of global leader in delivery of project, engineering and technical services Wood Group – has been awarded overall study engineer for the PFS while Snowden Mining Industry Consultants has been selected to consult the mining aspects of the study.
Meanwhile, Golder Associates will provide advice on technical functions including mineral resources, hydrogeology and tailings management while Talis Consultants has been selected to progress the environment and community aspects of the study.
Mt Thirsty – which lies 16km northwest of Norseman – hosts a JORC 2004 resource of 31.9Mt at 0.13% cobalt and 0.55% nickel including an indicated portion of 16.6Mt at 0.14% cobalt and 0.60% nickel and an Inferred portion of 15.3Mt at 0.11% cobalt and 0.51% nickel.
According to Barra, the scoping study shows 73% of the cobalt is readily won through agitated atmospheric leaching using sulphur dioxide as a preferred reagent.
This is a key competitive advantage for the project over many peers who require significantly higher capital to liberate cobalt and nickel through high pressure acid leaching,” Barra said.
The company said Mt Thirsty was heavily leveraged to the rising cobalt price, with 84% of all revenue forecast to come from cobalt rather than nickel. LME cobalt was last trading at $US90,250 per tonne, up 20% since start of the year.
The project abuts the Norseman cobalt project which is wholly-owned by recently listed Mark Creasy-backed Galileo Mining. Norseman has an exploration target of 10-20 million tonnes at 0.1 – 0.12% cobalt.
Shares in Barra were trading 0.2c higher at 5c on Thursday.