Cobalt Blue Holdings is getting an AUD 15 million ($10.61m) grant from the Australian government for its Broken Hill Cobalt Project, Kallanish reports.

The grant from the Critical Minerals Accelerator Initiative will enable the company to expand the scope of feasibility studies, to develop needed infrastructure and to decrease the start-up commissioning risks on the project in New South Wales.

The funding comes after the Broken Hill project had been granted major project status by the Australian government, as the company moves to develop the first Australian cobalt sulphate refinery. The company says the project is the only large-scale, greenfield, primary cobalt project globally outside of Africa. It would make Australia one of the largest cobalt producers in the world.

A final investment decision on the Broken Hill cobalt project is expected in 2022. The company holds 63 square kilometres, about 23 km west of Broken Hill in New South Wales. It would produce 3,600 tonnes/year of cobalt over 17 years. Total measured, indicated and inferred resources are estimated to be 118m t grading 859 parts-per-million cobalt equivalent. It would also produce nickel and sulphur.

A pilot plant operated in 2021 and a larger demonstration plant is being developed in New South Wales.