Canada’s M2 Cobalt Corporation said on Tuesday that its initial
drilling indicates that there may be more cobalt in Uganda than
previously thought.
Any discoveries would add
much-needed diversity in the supply of cobalt, a mineral at the heart of
the global electric vehicle revolution as a key component in batteries.
“We
are excited so far that in this short time we got really promising
results in three target areas,” Jennifer Hinton, the firm’s director for
East Africa operations, told Reuters.
M2 Cobalt has
carried out extensive airborne surveys and drilled three targets near a
historical copper mine close to Uganda’s border with Democratic Republic
of Congo, where more than 60 per cent of the world’s cobalt is
produced.
“Grades of up to 1.75 per cent cobalt, 0.91
per cent copper and 0.26 per cent nickel combined with the size of our
targets are extremely encouraging,” Hinton said, adding “there could be a
bigger regional source of high cobalt concentrations”.
M2
Cobalt believes its Uganda property, about 2,400 square kilometres,
holds huge promise because parts of it share geological similarities
with Congo’s cobalt-rich Katanga region.
Another chunk of the firm’s exploration acreage is close to
Kilembe, a historical copper-cobalt mine that was run by defunct
Canadian miner Falconbridge before it was abandoned in the 1970s during
an economic slump under former dictator Idi Amin.
Uganda’s
Department of Geological Survey and Mines says Kilembe has an estimated
4 million tonnes of ore, of which 1.98 per cent is estimated to be pure
copper and 0.17 per cent cobalt.
“Historically it was a world-class producer. So we know cobalt is there,” Hinton said.
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