Australian miner Cobalt Blue partners with Japan's Iwatani for refinery project (updated)

IWATANI

01/12/2023 01:20

(Updates with details of refinery, background on Iwatani in
paragraphs 2-4)
       Dec 1 (Reuters) - Australia's Cobalt Blue  COB.AX  said
on Friday it will partner with Japanese oil and gas refiner
Iwatani Corporation  8088.T  in a bid to develop a cobalt-nickel
refinery project in Western Australia.
    The proposed refinery, which is located near Perth, Western
Australia, will see a large-scale demonstration plant for test
work of third-party material to support technical studies. 
    Cobalt Blue said it started a large-scale raw materials
testing programme for the project and aims to trial up to
5-tonne samples from third-party suppliers. 
        Iwatani Corp is an oil and gas refining and marketing
company that specialises in the production and trading of
commodities. 
    The project will be based on Doral Fused Materials site,
which is owned by Iwatani's Australian subsidiary.
        
  

 (Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi
Aich and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
 ((Shivangi.Lahiri@thomsonreuters.com;))