<article><p class="lead">Australian nickel developer Blackstone Minerals has entered into a non-binding initial agreement with commodity trading firm Trafigura for the supply of nickel and cobalt products for its anticipated <a href="https://metals.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2025757">downstream refinery in Vietnam</a>.</p><p>A scoping study for the Ta Khoa nickel-copper-platinum group elements project in north Vietnam envisages a downstream refinery to process up to 200,000 t/yr of concentrate from the project.</p><p>Blackstone intends to upscale its downstream refining business through the staged construction of additional capacity, which will require additional raw material sources from third parties such as Trafigura.</p><p>Blackstone, which announced an indicated mineral resource of 44.3mn t grading 0.53pc nickel and an inferred resource of 14.3mnt grading 0.35pc nickel for the project, will soon start studies and permitting approvals for its downstream strategy. Upstream production is estimated at 12,700 t/yr of nickel over 8½ years.</p><p>A pilot and demonstration plant will be built to advance process flow sheets for the production of nickel, cobalt and manganese precursor products.</p><p class="bylines">By Angus Macmillan </p></article>
