Australian Mines’ Sconi cobalt project. Image: Supplied.
BY CAMERON DRUMMOND
AUSTRALIAN mines has tapped investors for $20 million in a heavily-oversubscribed capital raising for its Sconi cobalt-nickel-scandium play in Northern QLD.
The funds will be used to continue trial mining and undertake a bankable feasibility study, due to be completed in April 2018.
The budding cobalt miner is also constructing a demonstration-size processing plant capable of producing commercial-grade samples of cobalt sulphate, nickel sulphate and scandium oxide.
These samples will be used to progress negotiations with potential off-take partners and financiers, the company stated.
In March, a Sconi pre-feasibility study (PFS) reported a mineral resource of 514,000 tonnes (t) of nickel, 54,500t of cobalt and 1950t of scandium, making it one of the most prospective projects of its kind in Australia.
At its NSW Flemington project, which shares the same orebody as CleanTeQ’s Sunrise project, Australian Mines would extend and increase the mineral endowment through a series of drilling campaigns, with a PFS to be completed by mid-2018.
Exploration results at its greenfields Thackaringa cobalt project in NSW are due in December.
