First Cobalt to study use of black mass as supplemental feed stock in Ontario plant

The

cobalt mining company First Cobalt has initiated a study of the use of black mass generated from waste lithium-ion batteries as a supplementary feedstock to their production of cobalt sulphate in their plant north of Toronto, Ontario.

The Company believes the Refinery could recover cobalt, nickel, copper and potentially lithium and manganese, in addition to planned cobalt production from primary feed. Discussions are underway with several producers of black mass.

The scoping study will initially both consider using existing infrastructure and equipment currently installed at the current refinery as well as utilizing equipment that is not required for the cobalt sulfate expansion process that is currently underway.

The second phase of the study will consider additional equipment required to take all material streams to a battery-grade product. Under this scenario, opportunities for lithium, manganese, aluminum and graphite as revenue streams will be explored.

More here: https://www.firstcobalt.com/news/index.php?content_id=294