McEwen’s Los Azules copper project gets key environmental approval
The company anticipates construction to begin as early as 2026.
Blackstone Minerals (ASX: BSX) said today that assay results from its BC cobalt project in British Columbia, western Canada, allow to compare it with some of the top cobalt deposits in the world.
At the Paydirt 2019 Battery Minerals Conference in Perth, Blackstone Managing Director, Scott Williamson, said the company’s 335-square kilometer land pack has yielded a large sulphide-bearing body.
According to Williamson, new work in recent months has uncovered fresh targets assaying up to 2.3% cobalt and 32 grams per tonne gold, much of it hosted in soil anomalies more than 1.5 kilometres in length and emerging as the most significant discoveries there since the 1930s.
Cobalt find in British Columbia, Canada. Photo by Blackstone Minerals.
In Blackstone’s view, these results imply that the project has the potential to rival Morocco’s Bou-Azzer primary cobalt district, which has more than 50 deposits and has been a source of world cobalt production for 75 years.
The Australian miner is the first company in more than 70 years to undertake systematic exploration over an area around Canada’s former Jewel cobalt mining footprint, located 180 kilometres north of Vancouver.
“While some sample processing results are awaited, Blackstone says it is increasingly confident that the Project offers belt-scale opportunity of a nature that will appeal to cobalt end-users looking for a long-term supply of the key ingredient in cathode chemistry for lithium-ion batteries,” Williamson said.
