Blackstone Minerals (ASX: BSX) is actively exploring the Ta Khoa Nickel Project in Northern Vietnam. The project includes the Ban Phuc nickel mine which operated as a mechanised underground mine from 2013-16 and has existing modern infrastructure built to Australian Standards, including a 450ktpa processing plant.
The Ta Khoa district and Ban Phuc mine represents a rare opportunity to invest in a premier, infrastructure advantaged, district scale, nickel PGE (Cu Co) sulfide project, with a downstream nickel sulfate value add opportunity, located in an emerging hub for electric vehicle lithium-ion battery manufacturing.
Previous project owners invested more than US$136m into the project, generating US$213m in revenue during a 3.5-year period of falling nickel prices. The project was placed into care and maintenance in mid-2016 during some of the lowest nickel prices in the past 10 years.
Blackstone is investigating the potential to develop downstream processing infrastructure in Vietnam to produce a downstream nickel and cobalt product to supply Asia’s growing lithium-ion battery industry.
Blackstone’s additional projects include the Gold Bridge Project (Cobalt-Gold) in Canada.
The company has a well-credentialed management team with a proven track record of discovery and creating shareholder wealth, including Hamish Halliday (Non-Executive Chairman), Scott Williamson (Managing Director), Andrew Radonjic (Non-Executive Director), Hoirim Jung (Non-Executive Director) and Alison Gaines (Non-Executive Director).