Blackstone kicks off Vietnam nickel refinery pilot

Blackstone Minerals has delivered nickel-cobalt sulphides from its Ban Phuc mine in Vietnam to consultant, ALS in Perth, as part of a trial of its Ta Khoa nickel refinery pilot program. The company has a plan to become a globally significant producer of high purity NCM811 nickel-based precursor products for the lithium-ion battery industry and it is building an integrated mining, ore processing and downstream refinery business in Vietnam.

Blackstone recently completed disseminated nickel-cobalt ore extraction from underground at Ban Phuc, restarted the nickel concentrator and processed 1400t of ore to produce sulphide floatation product for the refinery trials. The company also delivered third party sourced sulphide product to ensure the refinery is able to accept feedstock from various sources.

NCM811 is a type of nickel-rich layered cathode material that can be used in lithium batteries using an 8:1:1 ratio of nickel, cobalt and manganese. This type of battery is considered the next generation because of its high energy density and low cost.

NCM 811 attracts a strong premium to metal prices and is valued at 120-140 per cent of the nickel metal price according to the company.

Blackstone will centre its mining and nickel concentrating activities at Ban Phuc in northern Vietnam, approximately 160km west of Hanoi, where its resource currently sits at 123m tonne grading 0.37 per cent nickel for 452kt of contained nickel plus other credits. The proposed location of the refinery producing high purity NCM811 products has now been narrowed down to one of two sites in Vietnam.

The delivery of 24.5t of samples to ALS for the TKR, or “Ta Khoa” refinery trials required the company to undertake 541m of underground development before mining of 2088t of disseminated nickel sulphide ore. Blackstone had to restart the Ban Phuc nickel concentrator to process 1400t of the ore producing 7.5t of Ban Phuc sulphide floatation product for the trials.

The Ban Phuc nickel concentrator was restarted by Blackstone in January 2022 and is rated at 450kt per annum. The plant has been on care and maintenance since 2016 and recommissioning works were undertaken by Ban Phuc operating and maintenance staff, many of whom had operated the plant in 2013-2016.

Blackstone said it took “great confidence” in the plant’s suitability for treating regional massive sulphide vein ore bodies after the successful recommissioning and operation of the crushing circuit and concentrator. The company has massive nickel sulphide ore at the Ban Chang and King Snake deposits and it now believes the Ban Phuc nickel concentrator can process these and other similar orebodies.

Delivery of 10t of sulphide flotation products and 1t of cobalt hydroxide from Trafigura and 6t of sulphide flotation products from other third-party sources was made to ALS as well as the Ban Phuc product. Ta Khoa Refinery is being designed to have a refining capacity of 400kt per annum and the flexibility to process feedstock provided from the Ban Phuc concentrator and third-party sources.

Blackstone Managing Director Scott Williamson said: “Blackstone is committed to sustainable mining and its development plans to recommence full commercial scale operations in Vietnam. As we progress further into pilot plant testing and feasibility studies, we will continue to advance our engagement and collaboration with potential partners and customers for our vertically integrated development strategy.”

Blackstone said the pilot program will replicate the full scale TKR flowsheet to confirm preliminary test work and provide data on the expected operation conditions of the continuous plant. Evaluation of the pilot plant data will see the company move to finalise the TKR design.

It is not often that a company plans to bring a new mine, nickel concentrator and refinery into production. Blackstone have gone one step further by planning value adding of the nickel metal production into NCM811 lithium-ion battery precursor products designed specifically for the regional Asian market.

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