Overview
Countries across the world continue to commit to a more sustainable future. The interest in electric vehicles (EVs) continues to grow in tandem with the worldwide drive to reduce carbon emissions. Critical minerals drive the electrification revolution, with nickel being one of the hidden heroes in the lithium-ion battery industry.
Blackstone Minerals (ASX:BSX,OTC:BLSTF) is an Australian company focused on sustainability in the international battery industry. Its flagship Ta Khoa Nickel Copper PGE Project is located in the Son La Province of Vietnam. It includes the existing Ban Phuc mine, which was successfully operated by Asian Mineral Resources from 2013 to 2016. This is a rare opportunity to invest in a premier nickel PGE sulfide project to deliver high-value nickel sulfate into Asia’s rapidly growing EV industry.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Blackstone Minerals and officials of Vietnam’s Son La Province, signed in April 2022, established a cooperative framework for the development of the Ta Khoa Project, which comprises the Ta Khoa Nickel Project and Ta Khoa Refinery.
“Blackstone’s ambition is to work respectfully and collaboratively with the people of Vietnam to generate significant socio-economic benefits for the communities in which we operate. Vietnam, and the Son La Province, is blessed with mineral potential, excellent infrastructure, loyal people and has all the key ingredients to be at the forefront of the movement towards electrification of transportation,” Scott Williamson, managing director of Blackstone Minerals, said during the MOU signing.
Blackstone Minerals also has interest in other areas with opportunities for development, with a second property located approximately 200 kilometers north of Vancouver in British Columbia. Acquired in October 2017, the Gold Bridge Project, has since completed a maiden exploration program with results indicating opportunities for a world-class cobalt belt — another critical mineral.
Company Highlights
- Ta Khoa Project has infrastructure advantages via the existing Ban Phuc mine and processing facilities, access to low-cost, underutilized hydroelectricity, a trained labour force, and support from the local government.
- Ban Phuc is one of 25 nickel sulfide prospects in the highly prospective Blackstone-controlled Ta Khoa Nickel PGE (copper-cobalt) district, Son La Province, Vietnam.
- Blackstone Minerals’ downstream pre-feasibility study confirms a technically and economically robust hydrometallurgical refining process to upgrade nickel sulfide concentrate to produce battery grade nickel.
- Advancing an independent scoping study evaluating development options for the Ban Phuc bulk mineable disseminated deposit and adjacent high-grade Nickel PGE (copper-cobalt) prospects.
- The objective is to produce a high-value nickel sulfate product for the lithium-ion EV battery manufacturing hub being developed in the port city of Hai Phong.
- Blackstone’s key nickel and cobalt feed stocks for the Ta Khoa Refinery Pilot program were delivered to the metallurgical laboratory in Western Australia as of April 2022.
Key Projects
Flagship Project: Ta Khoa Nickel-Copper-PGE Project
The Ta Khoa Nickel-Copper-PGE Project is located 160 kilometers west of Hanoi in the Son La Province of Vietnam. It includes an existing modern nickel mine built to Australian Standards, which is currently under care and maintenance. The Ban Phuc nickel mine successfully operated as a mechanized underground nickel mine from 2013 to 2016.
Blackstone Minerals’ downstream pre-feasibility study confirms a robust hydrometallurgical refining process to upgrade nickel sulfide concentrate that ultimately produces battery grade nickel, cobalt, and manganese, all precursors for the lithium-ion battery industry.
Blackstone Minerals completed a scoping study for the development and restart of the Ta Khoa Nickel-Copper-PGE Project. It comprises an open pit mine at the Ban Phuc nickel mine.The disseminated stringer sulphide performs upstream processing and downstream processing to produce a precursor product for the battery market.
This milestone provides an initial platform to build a mine-to-market nickel business over the coming years, with multiple upside opportunities to improve on the scoping study as presented. Blackstone is focused on developing the Ta Khoa Project and a definitive feasibility study for integrated operation is currently underway.
Base physical analysis shows a refinery capacity of 400ktpa with a 10-year operational projection aligning with Ban Phuc’s plans and with the availability of known third- party concentrate feed. The first production is currently targeted in 2024 and is expected to ramp up to steady state operations, currently forecast to be achieved in 2026.
Recent drilling results from portable XRF readings indicated the presence of up to 20 percent nickel at the Ta Khoa project.
In 2021, the Ta Khoa mineral resource increases 73 percent to 485kt of nickel along with the following results.
- Ban Phuc Mineral Resource Upgrade:
- 123 Mt at 0.37 percent Ni for 452kt of nickel (or 0.43 percent NiEQ1 for 523kt NiEQ)
- 102 Mt at 0.38 percent Ni (0.44% NiEQ) is in the Indicated category and 21Mt 0.33 percent Ni (0.37 percent NiEQ) is in the Inferred category
- Ban Phuc Disseminated Sulfide (DSS) deposit (refer Figure 1) to provide base load supply to an 8Mtpa concentrator being examined in the Upstream Pre-feasibility Study (PFS) to be completed early in 2022
- Maiden Inferred Resources for Ban Chang, King Snake and Ban Khoa:
- Ban Chang Massive Sulfide Vein (MSV) Inferred resource of 0.70 Mt at 1.2% Ni (2.0 percent NiEQ)
- King Snake MSV Inferred resource of 0.43 Mt at 1.3 percent Ni (2.4 percent NiEQ)
- Ban Khoa DSS Inferred resource of 6.2 Mt at 0.31 percent Ni (0.39 percent NiEQ)
- Ta Khoa Total Combined Mineral Resource of 130 Mt at 0.37 percent Ni for 485kt of nickel (0.44 percent NiEQ for 571kt Nickel Equivalent)
Gold Bridge Project
The Gold Bridge Project is located approximately 200 kilometers northwest of Vancouver, BC. It comprises 365 square kilometers of 100 percent Blackstone-owned mining claims located in the Cordilleran Terranes of BC. It includes several, high-grade hydrothermal gold, cobalt, nickel and copper deposits and targets the historic Little Gem and Jewel mines.
Discovered in the 1930s by prospectors identifying a pink cobalt-bloom on weathered mineralization, it led to the development of three adits. A total of 1,268 meters of drilling was completed from underground and detailed channel sampling was taken from the adits. Results from this work generated some exceptional cobalt and gold assays with average grades of 3.0 percent cobalt and 20g/t gold.
2018 fieldwork saw the discovery of cobalt-gold mineralization at Erebor with concentrations of up to 2.3 percent cobalt, 32 g/t gold, 1.6 percent copper, and 1.1 percent nickel. The large-scale anomaly shows the potential source of high-grade mineralization. The company gathers further area targets from data gathered through the exploration and sampling of stream sediments over the entire 48 km of untried geology for primary cobalt and gold mineralization.
Blackstone completed the 2019 fieldwork with a program of stream sediment sampling, soil sampling, and extensive mapping. It indicates that there is a widespread deep-dispersing sulfide body. Copper, gold, and cobalt anomalies are often distributed inside large structures related to the contact zone between granodiorite and serpentinite.
Blackstone’s geological model for the Jewel Prospect, approximately one kilometer north-northeast of the Little Gem prospect area shows the copper-gold-cobalt potential mining area is located in a favorable location in the same geological area as the underground mines in the primary cobalt-scale area.
The company’s most recent three-hole drilling program results at the Jewel and Western Gem prospects, released in September 2022, have confirmed the presence of significant nickel sulfides in addition to cobalt, gold, silver and copper sulfides.
Twilight Project
The Twilight Nickel-Copper Sulfide Project comprises a contiguous 217 square kilometer block of exploration claims located in western Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, approximately 80 km northeast of Labrador City – Wabrush and 55 km west of Churchill Falls’ hydroelectricity power station and associated infrastructure. Blackstone has an option agreement to acquire up to 100 percent project interest of the claims from prospector Big Land Exploration. The target unit for nickel-copper sulfide mineralisation is the Mesoproterozoic Shabogamo Gabbro intrusive suite. Earlier exploration demonstrated the Shabogamo Gabbro suite is fertile for nickel-copper sulfides. An airborne electromagnetic survey identified several conductors within the Shabogamo Gabbro and reconnaissance exploration drill testing by the BHP-Gallery JV returned intersections of up to 16 m at 0.16 percent nickel and 0.15 percent Copper, including 0.55 m at 0.34 percent nickel and 0.36 percent Copper and 374 ppm cobalt associated with heavily disseminated sulfides in gabbro. The company plans to conduct further high-power electromagnetic testing in this underexplored area.
Management Team
Scott Williamson – Managing Director and CEO
Scott Williamson is a mining engineer with a commerce degree from the West Australian School of Mines and Curtin University. He has more than 10 years of experience in technical and corporate roles in the mining and finance sectors.
Hamish Halliday – Chairman
Hamish Halliday is a geologist with more than 20 years of corporate and technical experience. He is the founder of Adamus Resources, a AU$3 million float which became a multi-million-ounce emerging gold producer.
Alison Gaines – Non-executive Director
Alison Gaines is a board advisor and Australian non-executive director with strong commercial skills and international experience. She has recently established her own board governance advisory firm after fourteen years with Gerard Daniels, a Perth headquartered international search and board consulting firm where she was recently the global CEO responsible for the Perth, Sydney, London and Houston offices.
Dr. Frank Bierlin – Non-executive Director
Dr. Frank Bierlin is a geologist with 30 years of technical and corporate experience, focusing on grassroots to mine-stage mineral exploration, target generation, project management and oversight, due diligence studies, mineral prospectivity analysis, metallogenic framework studies, and mineral resources market & investment analysis.
Hoirim Jung – Non-executive Director
Hoirim Jung has more than 10 years of financial management experience, specifically in financing and feasibility studies for new projects. He joined EcoPro in 2016 where his accomplishments include successfully dealing with the initial public offering of subsidiary EcoPro BM
Dan Lougher – Non-executive Director
Dan Lougher is a qualified mining engineer with over 40 years of experience in all aspects of resource and mining project exploration, feasibility, development and operations and has a significant corporate network in the financial and mining community. Lougher left his most recent role, CEO and managing director of Western Areas, following a merger with IGO Ltd. He is currently a non-executive director of Perseus Mining. Prior to leading Western Areas, Lougher spent 18 years in Africa with BHP Billiton, Impala Plats, Anglo American and Genmin. His professional qualifications include a Bachelor of Science (Honours) of Mining Geology, a Graduate Diploma in Engineering (Mining) and a Master of Science (Engineering). He also holds a First Class Mine Manager’s Certificate of Competency (WA) and is a fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
Mitch Thomas – CFO
Mitch Thomas is a mining finance professional with more than 15 years experience across various materials (precious, base, specialty chemicals and bulk) and continents (Australia, Africa, Europe, South, and North America). Prior to joining Blackstone, Thomas was CFO of Battery Materials for Rio Tinto with a focus on business development, project execution and financing structures. He is a commerce graduate, a chartered accountant and has an executive MBA from Melbourne Business School.
Jamie Byrde – Company Secretary
Jamie Byrde has more than 16 years of experience in corporate consulting, working in public and private company management since starting his career with a top-tier firm. Byrde specializes in financial management, ASX and ASIC compliance, and corporate governance of mineral and resource-focused public companies. Byrde is also the secretary of Venture Minerals.
Dr. Stuart Owen – Mineral Exploration Team Leader
Dr. Stuart Owen has a bachelor of science degree and a doctoral degree in geology with over 20 years of experience in mineral exploration. He was the senior geologist in the team that discovered the Paulsens Mine and served as an exploration manager at Adamus, which discovered the Southern Ashanti gold deposits. At Venture, Owen discovered the Mt Lindsay tin-tungsten-magnetite deposits.
Andrew Strickland – Project Development Team Leader
Andrew Strickland is an experienced study and project manager, and a fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Strickland has a master of business administration degree, with undergraduates in chemical engineering and extractive metallurgy from Curtin and the West Australian School of Mines. Previously, he was senior study manager for GR Engineering Services, where he was responsible for delivering a series of scoping and feasibility studies for Australian and international projects. Strickland has a history of developing mining and metals projects across different commodities and jurisdictions, as well as a broad understanding and experience in minerals processing, project management, and corporate strategy.
Tessa Kutscher – Executive
Tessa Kutscher is an experienced research and project manager, a Member of the Australian Institute of Mines and Metallurgy, and holds a master of business administration and an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and metallurgy from Curtin University and Western Australian School of Mines. Prior to joining Blackstone, Kutscher was a senior research manager at GR Engineering, undertaking a range of scope and pre-feasibility studies for both Australian and international projects. Kutscher brings extensive experience with metal and mining projects for a wide range of commodities including base metals, precious metals, industrial minerals, and iron ore. She also has a broad knowledge and experience in developing all aspects of mining projects including geology, mine design optimization and planning, process infrastructure and non-process infrastructure design, approval environment and licensing, marketing, project estimation, project financial analysis and funding.
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