Blackstone steps up journey to green nickel production

Blackstone Minerals is quickening the pace of development of its Ta Khoa green battery metals processing project in Vietnam by focusing on critical activities as it works towards  start of production within three years.

The company has recently held strategy meetings with prospective technology and off-take partners and has a definitive feasibility study in the works.

It plans to build one of the greenest battery metal processing businesses in the world.

With a well-developed nickel mine already in store, Blackstone is looking to enter the booming battery sector by building a refinery and converting its nickel into a chemical product used in the first stage of producing a lithium-ion battery.

The company is focusing on the structuring of partnerships, assessing staged development options and reviewing key project infrastructure.

The strategy behind the development of the project was discussed in detail between the company and its prospective partners during a recent site visit to Blackstone’s Ban Phuc nickel mine and the proposed site for its Ta Khoa refinery.

Discussions included project partnership structures, investment strategy and development timelines, with the parties on board agreeing to continue working towards inking a binding deal by the end of the year.

Blackstone Minerals Managing Director, Scott Williamson said: “The flexibility and scalability of the flowsheet is a massive benefit to Blackstone and coupled with the soon-to-be-released Lifecycle Carbon Analysis solidifies Blackstone’s view that this will be one of the greenest and most resilient nickel businesses in the world.”

Blackstone is exploring the possibility of staged development options to minimise the upfront capital cost required for its venture and to identify the shortest pathway towards project cash flows.

The process design and flowsheet optimisation of its refinery as part of the definitive feasibility study are complete, allowing Blackstone to assess multiple development options.

Importantly, a key development of the process design is that the refinery feedstock is agnostic — meaning it will be able to accept a range of nickel concentrate specifications, nickel matte and mixed hydroxide precipitates. 

Potential staged development routes include early operation of the project’s existing concentrator to produce a saleable concentrate, firing up the refinery solely using third-party feed or even reducing the refinery size initially before funding expansions from operating cash flow.

Logistics and infrastructure reviews are ongoing to confirm project footprint requirements and mitigate key risks.

The potential to separate some infrastructure has been identified, inspiring the company to consider establishing part of its operation location closer to the port and customer infrastructure.

Given the current market environment, Blackstone’s activity will concentrate on items critical to the project’s development schedule whilst avoiding burning through the company’s strong cash position of $36.6m.

Specifically, progress on partnerships, permitting, metallurgical test work and piloting will be prioritised whilst other non time-critical activities will be assessed for the overall strategy.

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