Progress continues on First Cobalt battery plant
First Cobalt announced last month that work on the expansion and recommissioning of its battery materials hydrometallurgical refinery in Temiskaming Shores north of Toronto remains well on track for completion and commissioning at the end of next year.
When the project is complete, it will become the only refiner of battery-grade cobalt sulfate in North America, and the second largest outside China.
“Being located in Canada’s largest mining and mineral processing corridor has allowed us to build a strong project team, most of whom are local and will remain with First Cobalt through commissioning and into operations,” said Mark Trevisiol vice president of project development. “We continue to build the refinery expansion utilizing much of the existing physical asset. The equipment and processes selected are designed around our feedstock using known chemical processing methods employed in various other refining operations around the world.”
First Cobalt operated the facility from 1996 to 2015, producing cobalt, nickel, copper and silver products. It moved to expand the facility and modify operations to refine third-party cobalt hydroxide intermediate product into a high purity, battery grade cobalt sulfate that can power electric vehicles.
Currently, about 80 percent of cobalt sulfate is made in China and there is no production in North America. In December 2020, the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario announced a joint $10 million investment in the First Cobalt Refinery to help accelerate commissioning and expansion.
“This is the first major battery-grade cobalt sulfate refinery to be built outside China in over 20 years, so this is not only an exciting project for us but also for the Western battery supply chain,” said President and CEO Trent Mell. “Cobalt prices are up more than 20 percent over the past four weeks and we are witnessing stronger interest in offtake contracts as the battery supply chain shifts its focus from Europe to new investments in North America.”
In a release, First Cobalt announced it had performed a number of important testing and remediation activities, including collecting geotechnical information for design of the foundations for the new solvent extraction building and the cobalt sulfate crystallizer, removing chemicals not required for restart of the refinery, and inspecting lake water intake screening that feeds the main supply water pumping and piping network to the refinery.
First Cobalt has also hired two staff to work alongside contractor Ausenco Engineering Canada: a health, safety and logistics superintendent and a health, safety, environment and training coordinator. Both live locally, and are expected to transition to the operations leadership team once the refinery has been commissioned.
First Cobalt also says it is in preliminary talks with government officials to create a Battery Park on site. The company hopes to refine nickel and cobalt, while recycling black mass from spent lithium-ion batteries. All three products could be refined into battery materials.
Featured image: Drillers collect geotechnical data for design of the solvent extraction plant. (First Cobalt)