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Coffee with Samso: How Blackstone Minerals is preparing for the real impact of ESG

Published: 13:26 25 Sep 2021 AEST

Coffee with Samso: How Blackstone Minerals is preparing for the real impact of ESG.
Samso chats with Blackstone social performance lead Anna Cranney

As Blackstone Minerals Ltd (ASX:BSX, OTCQX:BLSTF, FRA:B9S) moves into the production phase, the implication of good ESG compliance is now of great importance.

Coffee With Samso Episode 105. Let's learn more about Blackstone Minerals in this Samso Special Series Part 2/5.

This is the second part of our Special Series on Blackstone, and in today's Coffee with Samso, we have Anna Cranney, who is the Social Performance Lead for Blackstone Minerals Limited sharing with us how they are managing and preparing to be responsibly complaint with ESG.

ESG is now one of the most important criteria from investors and companies in the mineral resource sector.  Commodity pricing is also heavily influenced by the need to be compliant with ESG. There are even investment decisions that are solely determined by the state of the ESG component of the product.

Blackstone Minerals is managing the process by instilling the passion of ESG into the DNA of the company. Anna Cranney tells us how they are doing this and why this is the core of the Blackstone business.

Tune in to find out how Anna Cranney and the Blackstone team continue to have best practice in making sure all aspects of the business are fully complaint with ESG requirements.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:07 The Blackstone ESG Story

02:25 How do you start the ESG Process?

06:26 How do you tackle the E - S - G ?

09:13 Which letter is most relevant to Blackstone?

14:52 Blackstone instills ESG into the DNA of the Company.

17:36 ESG is now in the whole business structure

19:51 What does Anna think of ESG 2 years ago? What about 5 years and 10 years from now?

23:38 ESG is a growing issue.

25:13 ESG is now part of the furniture.

23:50 Try all ways of distribution.

27:14 Anna shares how ESG will play out in future.

30:02 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. 

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For further information about Coffee with Samso and Rooster Talks visit: www.samso.com.au

About Samso

Samso is a renowned resource among the investment community for keen market analysis and insights into the companies and business trends that matter.

Investors seek out Samso for knowledgeable evaluations of current industry developments across a variety of business sectors and considered forecasts of future performances.

With a compelling format of relaxed online video interviews, Samso provides clear answers to questions they may not have the opportunity to ask and lays out the big picture to help them complete their investment research.

And in doing so, Samso also enables companies featured in interviews to build valuable engagement with their investment communities and customers.

Headed by industry veteran Noel Ong and based in Perth, Western Australia, Samso’s Coffee with Samso and Rooster Talk interviews both feature friendly conversations with business figures that give insights into Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) companies, related concepts and industry trends.

Noel Ong is a geologist with nearly 30 years of industry experience and a strong background in capital markets, corporate finance and the mineral resource sector. He was founder and managing director of ASX-listed company Siburan Resources Limited from 2009-2017 and has also been involved in several other ASX listings, providing advice, procuring projects and helping to raise capital.

He brings all this experience and expertise to the Samso interviews, where his engaging conversation style creates a relaxed dialogue, revealing insights that can pique investor interest.

Noel Ong travels across Australia to record the interviews, only requiring a coffee shop environment where they can be set up. The interviews are posted on Samso’s website and podcasts, YouTube and other relevant online environments where they can be shared among investment communities.

Samso also has a track record of developing successful business concepts in the Australasia region and provides bespoke research and counsel to businesses seeking to raise capital and procuring projects for ASX listings.

Disclaimer

The information contained in this article is the writer’s personal opinion and is provided for information only and is not intended to or nor will it create/induce the creation of any binding legal relations. Read full disclaimer.

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