Yes, good to see that they are prepared to go to the top men - but I hope they spoke to the Albion Process people first (offshoot of the old Mt Isa Mines - now Glencore Technology) http://www.albionprocess.com/EN/Pages/default.aspx
And speaking about Mt Isa, I learned recently that the deep copper ores have upwards of 1% cobalt - but initially it was not economic to extract. LOL - just goes out with the tailings - maybe that has changed with the huge spike in cobalt price and demand.
It seems that any change to the primary process to allow cobalt to be won in the final stages can be costly because of loss of some of the primary target metals.
Here is a process flow sheet involving oxidative leaching (which is an element of the Albion Process).
It is one of several flow sheets for the extraction of cobalt from polymetalic ores discussed in
COBALT MINERALISATION
IN SELECTED
AUSTRALIAN DEPOSITS
OK, of course CDV is not after cobalt here but it is interesting and informative to note the complexity and importance of the met processes involved with the increasingly poorer grades of ore we have to process.
Anyway, the appointment of Mr LeVier suggests that the optimum process - maybe even an economic one - has not yet been identified.