PART 4: MINE-TO-MARKET NICKEL BUSINESS

PART 4: MINE-TO-MARKET NICKEL BUSINESS

Andrew Strickland, Head of Project Development at Blackstone Minerals Ltd on Mine-to-Market Nickel Business

Post year-end in July 2021, Blackstone Minerals delivered a compelling Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) for the Downstream Business Unit. The PFS demonstrated post-tax Net Present Value (NPV) of more than US$2 billion and internal rate of return (IRR) of 67%. Upfront project capital of US$491 million would be paid back in 1.5 years from first production.

In terms of Blackstone Minerals' Upstream unit, they are continuing to drill out five orebodies across the project, comprising two larger disseminated deposits and three high-grade underground deposits. Blackstone Minerals have eight drill rigs operating to support resource

estimations for each of these and these are intended to be incorporated into the Upstream Business Unit PFS, due for delivery later in the 2021 calendar year.

[source: Blackstone Minerals Annual Report 2021]

Andrew Strickland together with the experience management team to drive Ta Khoa forward as mine-tomarket nickel business. The Ta Khoa Nickel Project is to produce downstream nickel products for the lithium-ion battery industry.

Andrew describes his role in developing the overall upstream and downstream projects in a way to optimise the overall value of Blackstone Minerals including Blackstone's ESG culture, in particular managing ESG in Vietnam.

Get the inside story. Take a peek into Blackstone Mineral's operations of the Ta Khoa Nickel Project

About Andrew Strickland

• Head of Project Development

• Blackstone Minerals Limited

• Qualifications: BEng (Chemical), BSci(Extractive Metallurgy), MBA, FAusIMM

Development at Blackstone Minerals on 9th November 2020. He has a history of developing mining and metals projects across different commodities and jurisdictions, including stints at Perseus Mining and South32 and has a broad understanding and experience in minerals processing, project management and corporate strategy.

He is an experienced Study and Project Manager, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, University of WA MBA graduate, with undergraduate degrees in Chemical Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy from Curtin and the West Australian School of Mines.

Mr. Strickland is a Perth local and former manager at GR Engineering, who takes on the role of Head of Project

✦ Blackstone Minerals has developed a vertically integrated business model, from mining at Ta Khoa to the manufacturing of NCM811 precursor in a downstream facility (Fig. 1). The upstream and downstream projects have been demonstrated to be economically viable, pending further technical studies.

Fig 1: The vertically integrated business model of Blackstone Minerals, from the August 3, 2021 news release.