{"id":16606,"date":"2023-06-26T09:15:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T09:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=16606"},"modified":"2023-06-27T06:48:10","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T06:48:10","slug":"an-idaho-cobalt-mine-stopped-production-but-now-the-militarys-interested-idaho-statesman-bc-idaho-military-cobaltid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=16606","title":{"rendered":"An Idaho cobalt mine stopped production. But now, the military\u2019s interested [Idaho Statesman :: BC-IDAHO-MILITARY-COBALT:ID]"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian owner of a cobalt mine in Central Idaho<\/a> plans more extensive study of cobalt at a remote site in the Salmon River Mountains, and the potential for a cobalt refinery, after securing $15 million from the U.S. Department of Defense.<\/p>\n

The funding agreement, which Jervois previously announced was coming<\/a>, does not compel the company to open its mine, though a company official said the funds may make it easier to restart production. After announcing the mine was near completion to fanfare last fall, Jervois abruptly suspended operations in March because the price of cobalt tumbled<\/a>. Jervois has said it expects the price to rebound.<\/p>\n

The mine near Salmon is within the Idaho Cobalt Belt, which contains some of the largest cobalt deposits in the U.S. If it starts production, the mine would be the only primary cobalt mine in the country \u2014 a fact with heightened importance now because the element is a common ingredient in electric vehicle batteries.<\/p>\n

The funding from the executive branch tasked with overseeing the U.S. Armed Forces emphasizes the importance of cobalt, which is also used in munitions and \u201chigh-temperature aerospace alloys,\u201d according to the Department of Defense. The mineral also has national security implications, as most mining and refining is controlled by China.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvestments such as these execute President Joe Biden\u2019s focus on strengthening supply chains for critical minerals for large capacity batteries,\u201d Laura Taylor-Kale, assistant secretary of defense for Industrial Base Policy, said in a news release this month. Industrial Base Policy oversees the industrial supply of military weapons systems.<\/p>\n

Jervois has estimated its mine could supply 10% of current U.S. demand for cobalt. The company has a pending application with the Department of Energy for a loan to help pay for a cobalt sulfate refinery for \u201cthe nascent but rapidly emerging U.S. electric vehicle industry,\u201d according to a news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In April, the company also announced that it could benefit from direct financing from the U.S. government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Demand for cobalt rises, but with uncertainty<\/h3>\n

As car manufacturers ramp up production and sales of electric vehicles, demand for cobalt is expected to double by 2030<\/a> by some estimates. China processes close to 80% of the world\u2019s supply of cobalt and is expected to soon control half of its production<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the same time, other types of battery chemistry that do not use cobalt \u2014 which is expensive to procure \u2014 are competing with the mineral<\/a> as automakers race to find cheaper materials to make cars.<\/p>\n

That means there is some doubt about how much cobalt will be needed in a less carbon-intensive economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe projected demand for cobalt varies widely depending on the assumptions that you make about technology, speed of adoption and other sorts of things,\u201d Elizabeth Holley, mining engineering professor at the Colorado School of Mines, recently told BNN Bloomberg<\/a>. \u201cSo that is a big unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview, the mine\u2019s executive general manager Matt Lengerich said the inflow of military funding would expand Jervois\u2019 understanding of the cobalt ore near Salmon and modernize the company\u2019s mapping of another nearby cobalt deposit that it controls. That work could bring the company closer to reopening its mine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we\u2019re in suspension, it allows us to expand that (cobalt) resource, and so it certainly does help in the effort to restart,\u201d Lengerich said.<\/p>\n

Funding brings study on cobalt refinery<\/h3>\n

The funds will also finance a \u201cbankable feasibility study\u201d for a cobalt refinery, of which there are none in the U.S.<\/p>\n

The study would examine the potential costs, profits and logistics of a cobalt refinery\u2019s business plan, Lengerich said, as well as its potential location. Putting a refinery at the mine site itself would be \u201chighly unlikely\u201d because of its remoteness, though Idaho is a possibility, he said.<\/p>\n

But Lengerich added that the company expects that such a refinery would last for decades, whereas the Salmon mine was permitted for only seven years.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re really looking at locating an asset that you expect to be there for decades,\u201d which could process cobalt from the Idaho mine or elsewhere, he said.<\/p>\n

Jervois also owns a cobalt refinery in Finland, and the company had planned to send the ore mined in Idaho to another refinery in S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil<\/a> \u2014 an expensive prospect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. is having an identity crisis: What kind of miners do we want to be?\u201d Holley told BNN Bloomberg. \u201cDo we really want to domestically produce, mine and refine battery materials? And the Idaho Cobalt Belt is a great test case for that. If we wanted to do the whole thing here, we would need to develop infrastructure to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

She noted one refinery is under construction in Missouri, but said the Idaho ore would need special processing.<\/p>\n

When could the cobalt mine reopen?<\/h3>\n

Jervois has not set a firm timeline for getting the mine online, and has pointed to the cobalt markets as its benchmark.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still scenarios under which we can see a restart as early as 2024,\u201d Lengerich said. \u201cAnd it could be later than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

———<\/p>\n

\u00a92023 Idaho Statesman. Visit at idahostatesman.com<\/a>. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/p>\n

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The Australian owner of a cobalt mine in Central Idaho plans more extensive study of cobalt at a remote site in the Salmon River Mountains, and the potential for a cobalt refinery, after securing $15 million from the U.S. Department of Defense. The funding agreement, which Jervois previously announced was coming, does not compel the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16607,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16606\/revisions\/16607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}