Jervois has appointed engineering consultant AFRY USA to commence basic engineering and a bankable feasibility study for a US cobalt refinery.
The study scope is a 6000 tonne per year greenfield refinery to process cobalt sulphate for the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) in the US auto industry.
AFRY provides engineering, design, digital and advisory services to accelerate the transition towards sustainability. The company has 19,000 experts in industry, energy and infrastructure sectors.
Site selection for the project is ongoing with initial basic engineering and the bankable feasibility study to commence in the meantime.
All costs including engineering are fully reimbursable by the U.S. Government under the previously announced Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Production Act outlining a US$15 ($23.7 million) million funding agreement with Jervois.
The terms of the agreement enable Jervois to undertake mineral resource drilling with the aim of accelerating the improved definition and expansion of currently known cobalt resources.
The project is a critical step in the US’ effort to decrease reliance on overseas sources of critical minerals.
“In investing in domestic cobalt resources, Industrial Base Policy is building a sustainable, responsible industrial base capable of meeting our future national defence challenge,” Assistant Secretary of Defence for Industrial Base Policy Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale said.
“Investments such as these execute President Biden’s focus on strengthening supply chains for critical minerals for large capacity batteries and are one step in the Defence Department’s strategy for minerals and materials related to batteries.”
Jervois has also developed its Australian Nico Young cobalt deposit in New South Wales into a core asset.
With cobalt-nickel resources becoming increasing valuable as demand of lithium-ion batteries for EVs continues to grow, Nico Young is well positioned to service the market.