COB - some key questions

Dear fellow Cobbers

Firstly, I wanted to say a genuine thanks to the insightful, big-picture and intelligent posters (bluesamurai, philh9 etc) who have followed this stock for years and continue to share knowledgeable thoughts and relevant articles. Also the technical analysis recently is great. Even our blatant pumpers (“keep buying and this little baby will be worth $18 very soon” are good for a laugh!).

I have spent some time rereading a number of historical ASX releases and have a few queries I was hoping to get thoughts or feedback on from.

My “big picture” questions and issues are:

(1) Extraction technique to take cobalt from disused mines - how proven is this technology or is it still conceptual by nature? Will they need to likely pay State Govts for access to such mines or provided to COB for free? Qld or NSW appear the most likely first cabs off the rank? And by patenting such technology do they really have a sustainable competitive advantage or only first mover advantage? I believe the Fed Govt recently handed out $ to another ASX listed company doing something similar?

(2) resource upside. COBs current proven resource is sufficient to provide cobalt for 5m EV. That’s decent but just a drop in the ocean of total global demand for the next 20 years. Is there any thoughts on the prospect of increasing mine life from the initial 17-20 years? They have increased tenements in recent years and wondering if they are still drilling any prospective areas or if what is known is the most likely final total resource? Can’t recall seeing any news about current or planned drilling going forward,

(3) COBs own 2020 release had a NPV of $1.80 with an assumed $27,000 tonne cobalt price. Has this NPV number been updated in recent years by COB or any other broker or Analyst (I couldn’t find it). COB mentioned a 10% increase in the cobalt price leads to a 30% profit increase. With cobalt prices almost tripling doesn’t that mean the NPV would be up,to 9x higher than previous then? $10+ ish? Or am I way out with this? Clearly it’s the future cobalt price is the major determinant of this companies future fortunes and wonder if there is an industry leading forecasting body which is most reliable in this regard (future price curves for cobalt)l

Any other thoughts on the best way to value this company?

(4) being totally non technically minded I do question HOW unproven or how much risk is involved in the demonstration plant. In my mind, IF this plant runs successfully as planned over coming months surely this whole project is majorly derisked and the next 6-12 months sees up to 30+ partners fighting it out to have a JV for a globally material supply of cobalt for the next 20 years?

Are any other key points I am missing here? A HUGE 6-12 months coming up and the Broken Hill project alone is so exciting but the way I see it the cobalt extraction IP could actually be the greatest component of COBs value longer term IF it works out..

Many thanks for any other followers thoughts on ANY of the above.

Cheers