First Cobalt Corp. (TSX-Venture:FCC) found its shares climbing early Wednesday afternoon, on announcing it has initiated a scoping-level capacity study to estimate the capital and operating requirements for the restart of its Ontario refinery.
The Toronto-based FCC noted that third-party discussions are underway to supply feedstock and capital to restart of the First Cobalt Refinery 18 to 24 months from finalizing feedstock supply terms. A study will be undertaken to define the production capacity of the Ontario facility under specific commercialization scenarios using higher grade feedstock
Said CEO Trent Mell, "First Cobalt is focused on becoming the first North American refiner of battery-grade cobalt sulfate and is in discussions with sources of potential cobalt hydroxide feed material. The study announced today is expected to identify upside within the Refinery by treating higher grade hydroxide feed material and removing the autoclave circuit, which is the current bottleneck to increasing throughput capacity.
"We look forward to announcing the results of this study in a few weeks' time."
Shares in FCC added a penny, or 7.1%, to 15 cents, with volume topping 266,000.
