Dr Paul Schofield gives an account of the CoG3 project’s annual Science Advisory Board meeting, held on the 6 and 7 June 2016 at the Bangor Acidophile Research Team (BART) centre, Bangor University.
The overall purpose of our Science Advisory Board is to assess and advise upon the strategic direction of the team’s project, CoG3: Geology, Geochemistry and Geomicrobiology of Cobalt. It also ensures that all components of the project stay focused on their objectives and remain sufficiently integrated so that the entire project can deliver the desired impact.
The meeting was hosted by Barrie Johnson and Sarah Smith of Bangor University.
Also present were Richard Herrington and Paul Schofield (NHM), and Jon Lloyd (Manchester University), some of our industry partners Leo Cheung (RPC, Canada), Mike Oxley (Brazilian Nickel Plc) and Gideon Lambiv (GL Geoscience), and Thomas Wallmach (Eramet Research) acting as an independent advisor.
The meeting kicked off with Richard presenting an outline of the project goals and ambition. Then Richard and the work-package leaders led a discussion about the progress of the various project sub-packages and what their next steps were. Mike gave an overview (and subsequent quiz) of the demonstration project that Brazilian Nickel Plc are initiating at Piaui, Brazil, and Gideon described the Nkamouna laterite deposit in Cameroon, one of the target sites for the CoG3 project.
Barrie and Sarah gave us a tour of the bioprocessing and bioleaching facilities at BART, detailing the experiments and outcomes from their ongoing tests on the first CoG3 ore materials. Finally, Leo and Thomas provided their overviews on the work so far and lead a discussion around the expectations and difficulties associated with the second tranche of CoG3 ore material, and possible additional material that might be sourced to enhance the project impact and industrial significance.