RE:Some news Metallurgical Testing Confirms Feasibility Level Process Flowsheet for the Cobalt Production Facility
VANCOUVER, Sept. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - eCobalt Solutions Inc. ("eCobalt" or "the Company") (ECS.TO) (ECSIF) (ECO.F) announces the successful completion of pilot-level metallurgical testing for the Company's 100% owned Idaho Cobalt Project (the "ICP"), located near the town of Salmon, in the heart of the historic Idaho Cobalt Belt. The ICP remains the sole, near-term environmentally-permitted primary cobalt deposit in the United States.
Pilot-level testing conducted at Hazen Research, Inc. ("Hazen") confirmed the arsenic removal process to produce a clean cobalt concentrate from ICP ore concentrates utilizing rotary kiln roasting methods, as demonstrated in previous bench scale testing reported in a news release dated June 25, 2018. The pilot studies concluded with a continuous run of 70 hours, including the orderly startup and shutdown of the process. ICP concentrate was fed for 50 continuous hours with process temperatures, pressures, and flow rates maintained throughout the test as designed.
The study verified both the concentrate roasting process to produce a clean concentrate and the exhaust gas management system, which safely captured and removed arsenic and sulphur from the exhaust gas stream, as designed for vitrification and neutralization, respectively.
These results validate feasibility-level detailed engineering of the simplified flowsheet for the Cobalt Production Facility ("CPF") to produce a clean cobalt concentrate, including costing and sizing of equipment. The results support the Company's optimization efforts to reduce technical risk, CAPEX, and OPEX of the CPF in the Optimized Feasibility Study, planned for release this quarter.
eCobalt has been working with a number of established cobalt metal traders on marketing efforts for off-take arrangements. Samples from the pilot test will be sent to parties the Company has been in discussions with, with the goal of confirming commercial terms and finalizing agreements.
"Results from the pilot testing have provided a high degree of confidence for the production of a clean, high value cobalt concentrate for potential off-take partners, further advancing current discussions," commented Paul Farquharson, President and CEO of eCobalt. "With these results we will now proceed with finalization of the Optimized Feasibility Study, which also incorporates data from the optimized mine plan and the February 2018 updated resource model into a new mineral reserve estimate. The successful conclusion to the pilot work achieves a key milestone in our development of the ICP into North America's first primary cobalt producer."
E.R. (Rick) Honsinger, P.Geo., Senior V.P. with eCobalt, is the Qualified Person who has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.