Page 58 By Frank Giorno First Cobalt announced it has suc cessfully produced a battery grade cobalt sulfate at its cobalt refnery in Cobalt Ontario The results mean First Cobalt is closer to restarting the only permit ted cobalt refnery in North Ameri ca The refnery would become the only North American producer of refned cobalt for the North Ameri can EV market once it becomes fully operational Producing a battery grade cobalt sulfate is one of our most signifcant accomplishments as the majority of refned cobalt for the electric ve hicle market is produced in Asia said T rent Mell First Cobalt Presi dent Chief Executive Ofcer With no cobalt sulfate production in North America today First Co balt stands to become the frst such producer for the American electric vehicle market Mell added Mell also travelled to Shanghai China in April to speak at the Fast markets MB Battery Materials 2019 conference In conjunction with this conference Mell met with several potential in vestors to discuss restart scenarios for the First Cobalt Refnery Con ference participants included some of the world s largest cobalt miners battery makers and electric vehicle companies Electric cars such as the T esla models or the Nissan Leaf are pow ered by lithiumion batteries that also require cobalt and graphite to retain their electrical charge Lithi um and graphite supplies are plen tiful but cobalt is scarcer and this worries electric battery and electric vehicle manufacturers About 60 per cent of the world s cobalt supply comes from the un stable Democratic Republic of the Congo Makers of North American electric car batteries such as T esla want alternate sources of cobalt that are ethically produced or they want to eliminate it altogether Elon Musk has referred to cobalt as the blooddiamonds of batteries First Cobalt s FCC vision is to establish a North American supply chain of ethically produced cobalt including exploration develop ST A YING ALERT SO Y OU DONT HA VE TO What do YO U think when it comes to PEACE OF MIND 249 3613137 www tipscanadanet establishing a North American supply chain for Ethical Cobalt FIRST COBAL T