They have a PEA (scoping study), no feasibility studies PFS nor...

They have a PEA (scoping study), no feasibility studies PFS nor DFS offered on their website, which makes one wonder why they started 'constructing' a mine if not sure of the economic viability, but offers an answer why the construction was halted three years ago in 2013. As it seems for now, from the images provided, Formation Metals did build 'some roads' on their site, but no further progress took place. The project progression may look ahead of the crowd given the initial appearance of 'some work being made on their site', but without a PFS, DFS and enough financing the estimate for the production going on-line is certainly not near-term and may well be in a similar position as any other of the virtuals.

Conico Ltd. and Barra's Mt. Thirsty, is I agree not better positioned than the competitors in terms of project progress, all of them own a site, however Conico’s surveys are at least near the PFS stage giving additional insight. The project ore is totally oxidised, negating the need for drilling and blasting. The shallow ore body is amenable to low cost, simple, conventional open pit mining. According to the study they presented their production potential will allow it to command from start-up, at least 3-4% of the global cobalt production. The study is of course not a DFS, but in comparison to others it is still something to go by.

It is improbable that any of the virtual producers will have a producing mine in the time necessary to have an impact on the cobalt shortage, however the cobalt shortage will have an impact on the cobalt pricing which will have an impact on them, as we currently see with the market caps of virtual lithium producers (holding nothing but fields e.g. PLS) soaring in the last couple of months due to the increase in the lithium demand and pricing. My assumption is, the cobalt developers will experience the same.