Canada’s RNC Minerals (TSX: RNX) said Thursday it might sell all or part of its Beta Hunt gold and nickel mine in Western Australia to focus instead on its Dumont cobalt and nickel project in Quebec, the world’s largest undeveloped reserve of both metals.
The Toronto-based miner, which acquire Beta Hunt in 2016, said while it has grew the scale of the operation ever since, such asset is now considered to be non-core to RNC, particularly since Dumont’s potential value is significantly greater than the Australian mine’s current worth.
The company, however, did say it would consider other strategic alternatives for Beta Hunt, adding that no decision about the mine future has been made at the time.
“With the positive outlook for nickel and cobalt underpinned by growing demand from electric vehicles, the potential for the Dumont is a large multiple of the value of Beta Hunt,” Mark Selby, the company’s president and CEO said in the statement. “[We believe] now is the time to aggressively advance Dumont towards making a decision to begin construction in 2019.”
About 60% of the world’s supply of cobalt, a by-product of nickel and copper mining, comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where fears about political instability and the challenges of ethical sourcing combine to supercharge supply concerns.
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