Jervois Global Limited officially opened its Idaho Cobalt Operations (ICO) mine site near Salmon, Idaho in the USA last Friday.

ICO is the only primary cobalt mine in the USA (Lundin's Eagle mine has potential for Co by-product credits).  However, the cobalt it produces will not (at least initially) remain totally in the USA.  The mine will produce 2ktpy which will then be exported and converted into refined products outside the USA before ultimately being brought back into the country to serve customers.

Jervois acquired the ICO cobalt-copper-gold mine project in mid-2019, and in September 2020 announced the completion of an updated BFS based on extracting 2.5Mtpy of ore at an average grade of 0.55% Co, 0.80% Cu and 0.64 g/t Au. The initial mine life set out in the BFS is seven years and CAPEX was put at US$78.4M. In June, the final forecast capital expenditure to bring ICO into production was revised to US$107.5M (up 7.5% from the previous estimate).  The company noted cost pressures due to the US inflationary environment, contractor shortages, continued delays in the operability of an accommodation camp at site, and poor weather conditions across May and June. 

The mine commences a commissioning phase in October, with equipment undergoing final completion test work ahead of continuous commercial concentrate production expected across Q4 2022. Full nameplate capacity is expected by the end of Q1 2023. 

Jervois is advancing towards being a leading global supplier of responsibly sourced cobalt and nickel.  The company bought Freeport Cobalt for US$160M in 2021.  In doing so it acquired around 40% of the capacity of the Kokkola refinery in Finland after certain refining and battery material production lines were acquired by Umicore in 2019.  It also bought the São Miguel Paulista (SMP) nickel refinery in Brazil for US$22.5M in 2020. It published a BFS in April this year which envisages stage one production of 10ktpy Ni cathode and 2ktpy Co metal cathode with stage two ramping up to 25ktpy Ni.  Total CAPEX is put at US$55M.