I have been quietly following this BPL-COB saga. It is not pretty, a big distraction for COB mgmt and bad news for the SP. We smallholders do not have all the info anyway.
But a while back there was a mention that COB did not study the option of producing only a concentrate versus the end product Cobalt Sulphate. I cant remember off hand if it was in the Wood PLC report or it was mentioned in one of BPL releases.This option would of course reduce the CAPEX but the consequence is that COB would only get 1/3 max of the income it could generate from selling the Cobalt Sulphate.
My take is that this concentrate option would be BPL's preferred route :no need to add 2 years of testing, no need to spend the $ 28.6M mentioned, BPL would collect their $8.5M by mid 2019 and the royalty payment would flow much faster since production could start earlier.
As far as I can remember COB 's CEO has always been clear that Cobalt Sulphate production is the key to making the big bucks.
Considering the infrastructure costs alone I am not convinced that producing concentrate could enable COB to turn a profit.
