IDAHO - Vancouver-based FORMATION CAPITAL CORP. is hoping to become a primary producer of cobalt, what it calls the "new blue gold". It has been drilling the Idaho cobalt project located in east-central Idaho near the town of Salmon in the hopes of supplying nearly 4% of the world's demand for the metal.
Before last year's 25,000-ft drill program, diluted, proven and probable reserves at the project were estimated to be 1.26 million tons at 0.641% Co, 0.49% Cu and 0.017 opt Au. The program successfully developed additional reserves and resources along strike and down-dip on the Ram deposit. The highest cobalt grade, 4%, was intersected over 1.7 ft in hole R04-08.
The Idaho project is in the feasibility and advanced permitting stage. Formation is planning an 800 ton/day underground mine and mill. Annual production would be 15,000 tons of cobalt. The Idaho project is adjacent to the former Blackbird cobalt mine, which operated from the late 1880s until 1982.
Additional information about Formation Capital is available at www.formcap.com.
(Disclaimer: This writer lived in eastern Idaho from 1958 to 1974 and still visits family there. M.S.)
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