Canada Cobalt Works says it has made important breakthroughs in its proprietary and environmentally green Re-2OX process for the recovery of cobalt, precious metals and base metals, and will look to submit a patent application to protect the technology.

New testing using SGS Lakefield in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, has highlighted further optimisation of Re-2OX can allow the recovery of silver and copper for the first time, while also increasing the recovery rates for cobalt and nickel.

“In refining the Re-2OX process through a one-step leach extraction, overseen by Canada Cobalt adviser Dr Ron Molnar, SGS has recovered >99% cobalt, >99% silver, 99% nickel and 99% copper while removing 99% of arsenic from a composite of gravity concentrates,” the company said.

The gravity concentrates tested at SGS were from the historic Castle mine, in Ontario, classified as waste material and grading 10.2% Co, 11,000 g/t Ag, 0.26% Cu, 1.49% Ni and 45.1% arsenic.

Re-2OX skips the normal smelting process to create battery-grade cobalt sulphate, according to Canada Cobalt Works. The company said nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) battery-grade formulations are also in the pipeline.

“In addition, the ability of Re-2OX to achieve exceptionally high recovery rates for both cobalt and silver, plus nickel and copper, while also removing 99% of arsenic, expands the potential of the Castle mine given Phase 1 underground results released February 19, 2019, and a second phase starting soon,” the company said. “Furthermore, Re-2OX is a value-driver for the company’s planned tailings programs at Castle and elsewhere in the district, and will also be used by Canada Cobalt to immediately build a new model of ‘streaming’ opportunities for the company with respect to other battery metal projects while protecting the process.”

Given the current optimisation level of Re-2OX, and the growing importance of this hydrometallurgical process to Canada Cobalt and its shareholders, the company has now initiated the process of submitting a patent application for this proprietary metal extraction method.

Frank J Basa, Canada Cobalt President and CEO, said: “The fact that SGS has demonstrated that Re-2OX can very efficiently recover a broad set of metals from arsenic-rich material, ranging from low grade to high grade, further de-risks the Castle mine project and expands opportunities to build shareholder value. Further Re-2OX optimisation will target the recovery of gold.”