Blackstone Minerals to enhance Vietnam green nickel project

Blackstone Minerals has set its sights on the American firm’s Vietnamese green nickel ambition through its ongoing engagement with prospective technology and offtake partners at its Ta Khoa refinery project in northern Vietnam.

"Blackstone continues to deliver major project milestones to progress the development of the project," the company’s managing director Scott Williamson was quoted on Friday by Proactive Investors, an international multi-media news and broadcast organization.

"Completion of the pilot program, dossier submission and commencement of major permitting activities are great examples of our team’s commitment to driving the project forward.

"The project development strategy has matured, driven through partnership collaboration. Incorporating a multi-product strategy and staging opportunities into the design has brought increased interest from prospective partners and de-risked the project's pathway to cash flow.

"This is an exciting time for Blackstone as we continue our ambition to develop the greenest and most resilient nickel business in the world," he was quoted by Proactive Investors as saying.

Blackstone Minerals is focused on building an integrated battery metals processing business in Vietnam that produces nickel-cobalt-manganese precursor products for Asia’s growing lithium-ion battery industry, said the Friday report by the news organization.

The existing business has a modern nickel mine built to Australian standards, which successfully operated as a mechanized underground nickel mine from 2013 to 2016.

This will be complemented by a larger concentrator, refinery and precursor facility to support integrated production in-country.

According to the news report, to unlock the flowsheet, the company is focused on a partnership model and is collaborating with groups who are committed to sustainable mining, minimizing the carbon footprint, and implementing a vertically integrated supply chain.

The company’s development strategy is underpinned by the ability to secure nickel concentrate and Ta Khoa is emerging as a nickel sulphide district with several exploration targets yet to be tested.

A dossier has been submitted seeking investment policy for the project, with an environmental impact assessment and social and economic baseline survey started at the site.

The project is located in Lang Son province, about 160 kilometers northwest of Hanoi.

Blackstone Minerals in December 2022 hailed the success of its Ta Khoa nickel refinery pilot upon completion of a one-year test to underscore the American firm’s vertically integrated Vietnamese green nickel ambition.

Testing at the scaled-down version of Blackstone’s concentrate to sulphate process wrapped up on December 16 having churned out 2.2 tons of mixed hydroxide precipitate, the major feedstock for nickel sulphate used in batteries, according to the firm, which is based in Houston, Texas.

Nickel and cobalt sulphates from the plant achieved battery-grade specification and copper cathodes were of a quality capable of being sold as an A-grade product on the London Metal Exchange.

Blackstone claims that outcomes from the pilot have met or exceeded expectations set out in the pre-feasibility study and will be reflected as the company draws up its definitive feasibility study for the green project.