-Reviewing the latest quarterly report as of March 31stCOB had AU$ 3.25M in the bank but this did not include the $7.8M from LGI as the share purchase was completed on April 12th;so a total of AU$11M cash which will take care of expenses till publication of BFS next year.= no CR on the cards.
For the next 12 months COB has a forecast of a $ 5M expenditure in ground ( V likely including new areas labeled T1 to T4 on ASX release of Nov 22nd) to get a Measured resource + Reserve target. This would mean that after the PFS, we can expect later this year another upgraded resource = longer life of mine ie another major tick. My take is we will surpass 100KT contained Cobalt by DFS.
For the current quarter COB has a budget of $0.944M in overall expenses with $0.6M in exploration ( versus $1.67M last quarter).
COB has completed a large drilling program 12 500m and will work on an additional 13 000 m this year which is really impressive.
Let’s not forget we will get COB’s maiden ore reserve estimate as part of the PFS.
-Regarding the upcoming PFS, let’s keep in mind when appreciating NPV numbers that COB has only 115 Million shares versus 740M to CLQ.
-Also it is likely that COB can be in full production earlier than CLQ despite being currently 1 year behind: Nickel-Cobalt Laterite refineries are far more complex to build, face cost overruns and time delays and the ramp up to full production takes years. COB being a Sulphide +focused 100% on Cobalt + being non HPAL will require much less time to build and to reach full production stage. I’ll be looking at these numbers on the PFS.
-I am also glad that COB has a Korean partner in the context of the current anti China and trade war climate.
-Interestingly latest from Metal Bulletin of yesterday : “Low-grade cobalt and high-grade cobalt prices were assessed at $40.35-41.25 per lb, in-warehouseon Friday June 22. Spot activity has been limited since May when benchmark prices started to come off their multi-year highs, butthat is creating significant built up demand, sources told Metal Bulletin last week. “Prices have been high all year so people haven’t been buying much and inventories are low,” . At some point this year buyers will have to start replenishing their stocks as the EV production is surging.
COB Price at posting:
92.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
