- Several cobalt mineralization intervals identified within Kerr Area of Canadian Cobalt Camp contain multiple, closely spaced cobalt-silver veins
- Two surface drilling rigs added to Iron Creek Cobalt Project in Idaho to accelerate drilling results, complement ongoing underground drilling
- Demand for cobalt in vehicle battery materials is expected to grow over 40 percent in 2018
- Cobalt identified as a “critical metal” by U.S. as demand accelerates with global push toward electric vehicles
Cobalt exploration and development company First Cobalt Corp. (TSX.V: FCC) (OTCQX: FTSSF) recently reported encouraging drill assay results indicating near surface cobalt mineralization trends in the Kerr area within its Canadian Cobalt Camp location. Trent Mell, president and CEO of First Cobalt, noted that results retrieved from the first six holes of 15 drilled along the strike extent of the historic Kerr Lake and Drummond Mines, where several silver veins are known to occur, reflect cobalt-silver mineralization as closely spaced veins.
“The results reported today are just 400 metres north of the Kerr #2 Zone, providing great encouragement to our vision of large scale open pit mining in the Cobalt Camp,” Mell stated in a July 10 news release (http://ibn.fm/3rUjP). “We are reallocating a larger portion of the 2018 exploration budget to the Kerr area despite having a multitude of prospective targets across our land package. Results from nine drill holes are pending and additional drilling is planned.”
Roughly half of cobalt produced globally today is used in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which power everything from electric vehicles to smartphones, tablets and laptop computers. The electric vehicle, which requires a large amount of cobalt to produce, is the primary force propelling the cobalt boom. Electric car batteries require between five and 15 kilograms of the metal, roughly a thousand times the amount in smartphone batteries, according to a background report issued on June 15, 2018, by the Council on Foreign Relations (http://ibn.fm/HORap).
First Cobalt also recently announced the addition of two drill rigs at its Iron Creek Cobalt Project site in Idaho to accelerate drilling activities there. Mell said that the company’s confidence level in the growing footprint from results so far from the $9 million work program at Iron Creek warranted the additional equipment and boosted schedule.
“We believe Iron Creek is an important part of the pipeline of cobalt concentrate we intend to feed into the First Cobalt Refinery in Ontario and the addition of two more drill rigs will significantly speed up activities,” Mell stated in a news release (http://ibn.fm/hLIOv).
The U.S. Geological Survey’s annual Mineral Commodity Summaries reports that average annual cobalt prices more than doubled in 2017 over the previous year, owing to strong demand from consumers, limited availability of cobalt on the spot market and an increase in metal purchases by investors, a CNBC article states (http://ibn.fm/tuPRY).
First Cobalt Corp., with headquarters in Canada, is a vertically integrated North American pure-play cobalt company. First Cobalt has three significant North American assets: the Iron Creek Project in Idaho, which has a historic mineral resource estimate (non-compliant with NI 43-101) of 1.3 million tons grading 0.59 percent cobalt; the Canadian Cobalt Camp, with more than 50 past producing mines; and the only permitted cobalt refinery in North America capable of producing battery materials.
For more information, visit the company’s website at http://ibn.fm/FTSSF
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