In a collaborative effort with the Vietnamese Government, Blackstone Minerals has approvals to go after the highly-prospective Chim Van target with the drill bit. The company says geophysical modelling suggests Chim Van is a concealed ultramafic target similar to its Ban Phuc disseminated sulphide deposit, however significantly it registers a magnetic signature that is an order of magnitude larger. Blackstone is currently wheeling the rig to the site, about 7 kilometres northwest of Ban Phuc.
The first drill hole aims to reach about 650 metres and will test the explorer’s target for nickel-copper-PGE sulphides. Blackstone says if the drilling is successful it will move forward to secure an exploration license. Blackstone sees the target as a major regional opportunity to bolster its already large resource containing 452,000 tonnes of nickel.
The company has its sights set on building an integrated upstream and downstream battery metals processing business producing nickel-cobalt-manganese precursor products for Asia’s growing lithium-ion battery industry.
Blackstone’s upstream business involves the mining of nickel ore from its Ta Khoa project that will then be concentrated and flow through to its proposed downstream operation – the Ta Khoa refinery - from where it plans to produce about 80,000 tonnes of precursor product.
Blackstone estimates, in a base case scenario the amount it can churn out will be enough precursor product to support the manufacture of between 500,000 and 750,000 electric vehicles per year.
Blackstone Minerals Managing Director, Scott Williamson said: “Exploration continues to be a major focus for the Company as we look to organically increase our mining inventory available to feed the Ta Khoa Refinery.”
With electric vehicle sales appearing to take off like an untrained dog without a leash, Blackstone could have positioned itself well to take advantage of the runaway market.
According to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations, electric vehicle sales increased threefold in the past financial year.
Bloomberg reports Vietnam’s electric vehicle manufacturer VinFast plans to expand by setting up shop in North Carolina after filing for an initial public offer that could see it raise as much as US$2 billion.
Along with its expansion abroad, VinFast has been kept busy at home with an existing partnership inked with South Korea’s LG Chem back in 2019 to produce lithium-ion batteries in Vietnam’s port city Hai Phong for use in VinFast’s electric scooters and cars.
With the International Energy Agency predicting there will be around 145 million electric vehicles on the streets by 2030, all those within the battery supply chain are in for a busy decade.
Blackstone has recently made a string of strategic investments to secure a supply of battery metals for the green operation it envisages. With the company now chasing down what appears to be an even larger prospective target just 7km down the road from Ban Phuc, Blackstone investors will be in for an interesting ride ahead.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
