Page 24 Contd from pg 22 Cobalt Ontario which would become the primary producer of refned cobalt for elec tric vehicles in North America Glencore said that once a defnitive feasibility study for a planne d expan sion is comple ted which is expected to happen in early 2020 it would invest another 40 million into re commissioning and expanding the refnery located 600 km from the US border The facility will have capac ity to produce either a cobal t sulfate for the lithiumion battery market or cobalt metal for the North Ameri can industrial and military applica tions In addition to its refnery First Cobalt has amassed a sub stantial land base in the historic Co balt Ontario silver cobalt district He says the drill results are encouraging A lot of smoke as they say Now we have to fnd fre T rent Mell Presi dent and CEO of First Cobalt told CBC in 2018 While Mell may have been a little premature with those comments and the oversupply and lack of demand for cobalt lead to a 33 decline in cobalt prices in 2018 the tide fnally may be turning The smartphone you have in your Ele c tric c ar sales soa ring pocket likely has a few grams of co balt in its battery said Mell but pounds of the stuf are needed for an elect ric car And with electric car sales soaring demand for cobalt has spiked as well First Cobalt has assembled an ex tensive property package to facili tate an exploration program across the over 10000 hectares the Com pany owns to leverage this historic knowledge through the reevalua tion of the silver cobalt mineralized system The Camp is divided into three explorat ion regions Cobalt North Central and South Ironically Cobalt Ontario which once thrived on silver will fnally earn its second life on cobalt the metal that was discarded in favour of silve r and for which it is named after Mining Industr y Huma n R esourc es C ounc il emplo ymen t e x c eeds 626000 jobs ac c oun ting f or one in ev er y 30 jobs in C anada T he industr y will need t o hir e 79680 new w or kers o v er the ne x t decade and this w or kf or c e shor tage is c ompounded b y the w a v e of the industr y s sk illed c or e of w or kers who ar e r etir ing B y 2030 the M ining I ndus tr y Human R esour c es C ouncil M iHR f or ecasts tha t mor e than 57000 emplo y ees will r etir e fr om the sec t or which r epr esen ts o v er 25 of the in dustr y s cur r en t w or kf or c e b y M iHR defnitions T he C anadian mining industr y is fer c ely c ompeting f or a pool of sk illed w or kers C ompanies in other c oun tr ies ar e also also ac tiv ely r ecruiting C anadian g r adua t es and w or kers it cr ea t es a sig nifcan t sk ills gap in the sec t or ac c or ding t o T he M ining A ssocia tion of C anada s la t est r epor t T he C anadian mining industr y is w or th a whopping C47 billion with C296 billion c oming fr om On tar io Q uebec and Br itish C olumbia c oming fr om T he S ta t e of C an ada s M ining I ndustr y F ac ts and F igur es 2019 r epor t T he w or kf or c e shor tage is c ompounded b y the w a v e of sk illed c or e of w or kers who ar e r etir ing T he c oun tr y has sho wn up w ar d sig ns of r e c o v er y in e xplor a tion in v estmen t in r ec en t y ears in the Y ukon and the Nor th w est T er r it or ies with a lev eling out in Nuna vut af t er some buo y an t y ears 91 million in the Nor th w est T er r it or ies 99 million in Nuna vut and 99 million in the Y ukon T ogether the industr y s dir ec t and indir ec t HR REPORT AL ARMING Page 25 Ele c tric c ar sales soa ring Page 25