“With Glencore as our partner, our intention is to bring a reliable source of ethical cobalt to North America in 2020” Trent Mell, First Cobalt CEO

Glencore said in August that once a definitive feasibility study for a planned expansion is completed, which is expected to happen in early 2020, it would invest another $40 million into recommissioning and expanding the refinery, located 600 km from the US-Canada border.

First Cobalt says it is on schedule for Q1 2020 completion of a prefeasibility study for a 12 t/d restart and a second definitive feasibility study for a 55 t/d expansion scenario in the second half of 2021.

“With Glencore as our partner, our intention is to bring a reliable source of ethical cobalt to North America in 2020s,” said Trent Mell, the company’s president and CEO.

Based on a scoping study released earlier this year, the capital cost of expanding the First Cobalt refinery to 55 t/d came in at $37.5 million. An estimated 25,000 tonnes per year of battery grade cobalt sulphate could be produced.

At market close Wednesday, First Cobalt’s stock was up over 4% on the TSX Venture Exchange. The company has a C$46.5 million market capitalization.