Year 3 of 10 in a long complicated process to finish a DFS....

Year 3 of 10 in a long complicated process to finish a DFS.

Like, hello, the company is clearly serious. They got the Wood PLC review, and realised it was full of risks that could not be contained and quantified without significant additional work. So they drilled more holes, and put 45 tonnes of ore in a fridge (lest it oxidise). That stuff has been in a fridge for nearly a year, so they saw this bulk sample test work process coming a while ago. So they have begun the concentrator de-risking; more chilled RC and DDH samples are awaiting the pyrolisis stage. Maybe more needed to feed through to the sulphate stage.

The other thing to note is, cobalt metal 99% purity has one price. What's CoSOx price for 99.99% pure feedstock for batteries? The prices aren't neccessarily linked. Thirdly, there's been a huge manipulation of physicals in cobalt by hedges and speculators; Milewski had nearly a whole year's LME stock in his hands at one point; if that's not price manipulation nothing is. So what's the real market price of the metal, or derivative products and niche specifications? What premium will LG pay for sulphate it doesn't have to expensively electrolytically refine itself?

That's why there is, in my view, a couple more years left before COB finishes a DFS. It's why it was a sensible move to push back against BPL and the timeline foisted off on the project by the BPL-minted JV agreement. It's why it was smart to dilute out BPL via that mechanism.

I personally don't think it's a great time to buy, for various reasons, but mostly the DFS is incomplete and cobalt isn't exactly easy. But COB is taking this project forward step by step and making sure the DFS is professional, comprehensive and...definitive.