The Cobalt Blue Holdings Ltd (ASX: COB) share price is racing higher following the release of an operations update.
At the time of writing, the mining producer's shares are up 14.10% to a 52-week high of 89 cents. This means its shares have risen more than 30% in the past week, and almost 95% in a month.
Let's take a closer look at what the company announced before market open.
How is Cobalt Blue tracking along?
In today's statement, Cobalt Blue advised it has commenced development works at the Broken Hill Cobalt Project (BHCP).
Located in far western New South Wales, BHCP is aiming to become one of the largest producers of cobalt worldwide.
The latest underground works will provide bulk ore samples to support the operation of a large-scale demonstration plant.
Cobalt Blue noted that it has successfully established the development site Pyrite Hill, with the first blast completed.
The underground development will mine between 3,500 to 4,000 tonnes of ore to support 20 weeks of continuous operation of the Demonstration Plant.
This will see mined ore crushed, milled and treated to produce a cobalt-pyrite concentrate at the mine site.
From there, the concentrate will be trucked to the processing plant in Broken Hill for extraction and recovery of cobalt as mixed hydroxide precipitate and/or cobalt sulphate.
Cobalt Blue is targeting first ore processing (concertation) for late April.
In addition, management stated that upgrades and modifications to the 2021 Pilot Plant are well advanced.
Key major equipment items are arriving at the site and will be installed across March and April. The plant is expected to be ready to then process concentrate from the mine site in early May.
Cobalt Blue CEO, Joe Kaderavek commented on the progress:
Demonstration Plant activities are coming together nicely with mining underway and processing equipment being received.
Last year, our successful Pilot Plant opened the door to new partners. These large-scale Demonstration Plant cobalt samples are a game changer for COB, providing operating proof for project equity/debt funders and simultaneously providing high quality production scale samples for commercial partners.
About the Cobalt Blue share price
Since the start of the year, the Cobalt Blue share price has surged by close to 80% on the back of rising commodity prices.
When looking at this time last year, the company's shares have gained roughly 120% in value.
Based on valuation grounds, Cobalt Blue commands a market capitalisation of around $270.96 million.
