Missouri Cobalt, LLC Names Hollomon CEO

"Missouri Cobalt is poised to be a significant player in the cobalt market," Hollomon said. "With a large and reliable source of cobalt within North America, we will enable our customers to eliminate the uncertainties and significant transportation costs of acquiring this vital resource from other parts of the world. As is important to this fast-moving market, we will begin processing cobalt here in Missouri in the Summer of 2018."

Missouri Cobalt acquired the century-old Madison County mine in February 2018, in response to tremendous momentum in the high-performance battery market, driven by electric vehicle makers Tesla, BMW, Volkswagen, Panasonic and other industry leaders. These high-performance batteries require significant cobalt resources. The annual demand for cobalt reached $8 billion in 2017. 

Between proven and inferred reserves, the Missouri Cobalt mine holds an estimated 35 million pounds of recoverable cobalt, likely making it the largest such reserve in North America. The company anticipates obtaining a mining permit from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) within six months but expects to begin producing an existing cobalt product on-site in three to four months. The full Missouri Cobalt operation, including on-site cobalt processing, will follow within two years, Hollomon said. The site also contains an estimated 51 million pounds of nickel and 65 million pounds of copper.

"We are excited to have a CEO such as Mike Hollomon on board. His global perspective garnered at firms such as Glencore and Gunvor adds significant operational integrity to our company. As we are seeing tremendous in-bound demand for our cobalt product, Mike will be intently focused on timely delivery to our customers," said Missouri Cobalt Chairman J. Randall Waterfield. "Moreover, our affiliate, Environmental Risk Transfer, will perform remediation on the site, helping clean up the environment, while the new cobalt mining operation will create jobs in Madison County and support the advancement of America's renewable energy resources."

Mr. Hollomon has more than 24 years of experience in the global commodities and mining space, with more than half of that time spent with the world's largest commodities trading and mining conglomerate, Glencore. He also was integral in the transition of Swiss-based Gunvor SA from a pure oil and gas trader into a varied upstream mining group. At Gunvor, he also oversaw the identification, acquisition, management and operations at several mines including the Signal Peak (US) and Kolmar (Russia) acquisitions.

About Missouri Cobalt, LLC

Missouri Cobalt operates a mine in Madison County, Missouri which holds an estimated 35 million pounds of recoverable cobalt, likely making it the largest such reserve in North America. The site also contains an estimated 51 million pounds of nickel and 65 million pounds of copper.

The company was formed by J. Randall Waterfield, CEO of Waterfield Holdings and Stacy W. Hastie, CEO of Environmental Operations, Inc., in response to tremendous momentum in the high-performance battery market, driven by electric vehicle makers Tesla, BMW, Volkswagen, Panasonic and other industry leaders. These high-performance batteries require significant cobalt resources. The annual demand for cobalt reached $8 billion in 2017. 

Environmental remediation at the Missouri Cobalt site will employ up to 50 people. The new mining operation will create more than 250 permanent local jobs, plus construction jobs. In total, the project will produce some 600-700 temporary and permanent jobs.

SOURCE Missouri Cobalt, LLC