Coffee With Samso Episode 112 with Blackstone Minerals Limited (ASX: BSX).
The release of the Sustainability Report by Blackstone Minerals Limited (ASX:BSX) should indicate to investors that the end is near. The company is putting on the table the transparency of their activities and its intent on making this an industry-leading business.
In today's Coffee with Samso, Anna Cranney, who is the Social Performance Lead for Blackstone Minerals Limited (ASX: BSX) returns to give us an insight into what this report is all about. The content of the report may put many to sleep, but when you hear the context of the report as investors, this gives me a great deal of confidence that the company is looking to make a statement.
"Blackstone is looking to lead the industry and show through its transparency its intent on creating an ESG relevant, ESG leading business that creates a truly sustainable investment which has a World leading responsible nature for all stakeholders of the business." - Samso
Tune in to find out how Anna Cranney and the Blackstone team will deliver the ESG platform from theory to practice.
Chapters
00:00 Start
00:20 Introduction
02:16 The Sustainability Report
03:32 Is this Report a New Concept?
04:41 Is this report a Standard Operating Procedure document?
09:39 A brief of the content of the report.
14:56 How is Blackstone backing up with their claim to be an ESG champion?
16:11 Was ESG already in the marketplace?
19:20 Is it hard to get all stakeholders to conform to the Report?
23:20 Balancing the needs of local Vietnamese community against corporate.
26:35 Is the implementation of the report harder in Reality?
27:37 Are we overdoing ESG?
27:14 What is the cost of ESG?
33:43 What is the perception of the cost of ESG?
36:10 Sustainable Responsible Investments is ESG.
37:49 Conclusion
PODCAST
About Anna Cranney
Social Performance Lead with Blackstone Minerals Limited
Education:
Bachelor of Education/Arts from the University of QLD;
Graduate Certificate in International Education from the University of Sydney;
Certificate IV in Training and Assessment;
Diploma of Training Design and Development, RMIT;
Graduate Certificate in Social Impact from UWA and the Centre for Social Impact.
Anna Cranney hails from Goondiwindi in Queensland but moved to Perth a number of years ago to work within the extractives sector. She has over 13 years of experience working social performance, capacity building and community development programs. A decade of this has been time spent working regularly in Timor-Leste.
Ms Cranney has worked across industries and sectors including oil and gas, construction, education, not-for-profits, and in the aid and development sector. Her passion is in embedding impact-focussed ESG programs across technical teams and operations on major projects, and helping the extractives sector use a partnership approach with communities and not-for-profits to deliver long-term outcomes.
Anna has recently joined the Blackstone Minerals team to continue to develop their ‘green nickel’ strategy and embed ESG across the business, with a particular focus on their Ta-Khoa project in Northern Vietnam.
About Blackstone Minerals Limited
Blackstone Minerals Limited (ASX: BSX) is developing the district-scale Ta Khoa Project in Northern Vietnam where the company is drilling out the large-scale Ban Phuc Nickel-PGE deposit. The Ta Khoa Nickel-PGE Project has existing modern mine infrastructures built to International Standards including a 450ktpa processing plant and permitted mine facilities.
Blackstone Minerals also owns a large landholding at the Gold Bridge project within the BC porphyry belt in British Columbia, Canada with large scale drill targets prospective for high-grade gold-cobalt-copper mineralisation. In Australia, Blackstone Minerals is exploring for nickel and gold in the Eastern Goldfields and gold in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Blackstone Minerals has a board and management team with a proven track record of mineral discovery and corporate success.
The Ta Khoa Nickel-Copper-PGE Project
The Ta Khoa Nickel-Copper-PGE Project is located 160 km west of Hanoi in the Son La Province of Vietnam and includes an existing modern nickel mine built to Australian standards, which is currently under care and maintenance. The Ban Phuc nickel mine successfully operated as a mechanised underground nickel mine from 2013 to 2016. In the Ta Khoa Nickel-Copper-PGE Project, previous project owners invested more than US$136m in capital and generated US$213m in revenue during a 3.5-year period of falling nickel prices. The project was placed into care and maintenance in mid-2016 during some of the lowest nickel prices in the past 10 years.
Existing infrastructure associated with the project includes an internationally-designed 450 ktpa processing plant connected to local hydro grid power with a fully-permitted tailings facility and a modern 250-person camp.
Since commencing maiden drilling in August 2019, Blackstone Minerals has made significant progress at Ta Khoa, drilling over 9,000 m of diamond core in more than 47 holes into the Ban Phuc DSS deposit and the highly prospective King Cobra discovery zone. An initial scoping study evaluating mining and processing options is well advanced, including potential in-country downstream processing to deliver high-value nickel sulfate into Asia’s rapidly expanding electric vehicle (EV) industry. The recently announced MOU with Asia’s largest and the world’s second-largest EV battery cathode manufacturer, Ecopro BM Co Limited represents a significant step towards making this a reality.
Disclaimer
The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer.
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