I guess it was winter 2020 I stopped off at the Thackaringa Hills, about 23 kms outside Broken Hill, rounded rolling hills elevated above surrounding areas to some extent, not massive, perhaps 300m or so. I remember stopping at the wire gate off the road, standing on that laneway looking back up towards the direction of where Cobalt Blue would one day mine. Nothing existed in any noticeable form back then, so forgive me looking at this portal photo announced today with some satisfaction as a great believer in this project, I took two photos of nothing much back in 2020, the gate and the road, I pondered how many trucks would one day travel over this bit of dirt.
Similarly I have pondered for years what would be required to do something special at Broken Hill and who would be a part of that, in a wider sense, were we still a nation who could aspire ? or was it all lost to more industrious folk in other lands. COB are an example that we are not finished in this great Southern Land, it will fund much more and with many more players.
"build it and they will come" was something mentioned to me at separate times by different men. Andrew Cole CEO of Oz Minerals and Joe Kaderavek CEO Cobalt Blue. Two vastly different market caps however similar approaches IMHO. Both happy enough to be presented with problem, almost no matter what it was, a way is found to overcome and
keep moving forward.
I believe we will indeed do much more with our special minerals in Australia, and yes of course we can build batteries and EV's. Lots of other projects are all coming together, its no short road, success breads success, we have decades of decarbonizing our world. I liked the announcement today.
Here are those 2 photos, just a gate and tire tracks, but still I thought significant even back then.
Cheers
Phil.
