Cobalt Blue’s Shareholder Day and Broken Hill Pilot Plant opening attract strong interest

Cobalt Blue Holdings Ltd (ASX:COB) (OTCMKTS:CBBHF) (FRA:COH) attracted plenty of local and regional attention to a Shareholder Day held in addition to a formal opening of the Broken Hill Pilot Plant. COB’s board and staff welcomed local shareholders on May 18, 2021, on-site at the Pilot Plant in Broken Hill’s industrial estate area, complete with an interpretative site tour and opportunities for Q&A. Pilot Plant opened The following day, May 19, the Pilot Plant was officially opened before a crowd of more than 100, representing the many relationships that have been formed across community, industry, government and business over recent years. Those representatives included NSW and local government, sample partner delegates, local suppliers, training and employment agencies and community groups. Local and regional radio, print and TV media reported on the opening. Speeches delivered by COB directors and staff, local and state government celebrated the milestone achievement and “launched” the plant, declaring it open for business. Strong support These events have highlighted strong local community as well as commercial and government support for the Broken Hill Cobalt Project (BHCP) and the value-adding Pilot Plant. Cobalt Blue’s chief executive officer Joe Kaderavek said: “With the strong support of over 150 Broken Hill-based shareholders, COB held a Shareholders Day as well as an official Pilot Plant Opening Day to mark successful commissioning of the facility.” Processing technology on show At the open day, COB’s processing technology exhibited at the Pilot Plant was explained to those in attendance as they toured the facility. Interpretive signage helped facilitate a deeper understanding of this new processing being deployed to extract cobalt and produce a battery-ready product. COB’s innovative process to extract cobalt from pyrite was of particular interest to local shareholders, who are more accustomed to silver, lead and zinc mining. Clockwise from top left: COB chairman Robert Biancardi, executive manager Dr Andrew Tong, approvals manager Dr Bruce Blunden and CEO Joe Kaderavek present at the Open Day (photos courtesy of Raj Ravinga). Cobalt lifeline Cobalt is seen providing an economic lifeline for Broken Hill towards a sustainable future. The Pilot Plant is an important component of the company’s Cobalt Product Sample Program aimed at providing samples for technical and market assessments, to top-tier companies in the battery supply chain. Samples from the Broken Hill Pilot Plant will typically be small (<5 kilograms) and COB believes the samples will lead to project awareness and intercompany discussions across the global battery industry. The subsequent transition to a Demonstration Plant will allow COB to ship offtake qualification scale samples to potential commercial offtake partners. These samples will typically be large scale (up to 100 kilograms) in which the partner is examining purity and repeatability of production results. A complete supply qualification audit, of which samples represent a portion, is a necessary step to securing commercial agreements that will be required to underpin the BHCP transition to construction.