Cobalt Blue halted with material fundraising news pending

Cobalt Blue Holdings Ltd (ASX:COB) (OTCMKTS:CBBHF) is in a trading halt with an announcement pending in regard to the finalisation of a material fundraising. The halt will remain in place until the start of normal trading on Friday, July 31, or when an announcement is released to the market. Shares last traded at 12.5 cents and since June 29 have traded in the range of 9 cents to 14 cents. Cobalt Blue is targeting the ethical production of high-grade, battery-ready cobalt sulphate from the Broken Hill Cobalt Project (BHCP) in far west NSW. Ore reserve increases The company recently delivered a series of project enhancements for the BHCP, including a 55% increase in the ore reserve to 71.8 million tonnes at 710ppm cobalt in the probable category with contained cobalt up 34% to 51,000 tonnes. A Project Update 2020 Study demonstrates “a capital-efficient, low-cost, long-life mine/refinery making a premium battery-ready product in a safe and stable jurisdiction”. It also reveals that COB is the largest undeveloped cobalt producer in the world outside Africa. Positive test results The update follows news that tests on BHCP ore achieved a series of product benchmarks for cobalt sulphate, elemental sulphur and mixed hydroxide precipitate, which will be used for offtake marketing purposes with commercial customers. This test program produced 20.8% cobalt sulphate suitable for the lithium-ion battery market with the added benefit to BHCP economics of 99% grade sulphur.