The reality is everyone invested here because they thought the price of cobalt would go higher and stay there, it has been absolutely crushed in the past 12 months against this expectation.
I think this project needed a cobalt price around $50-60k/t minimum to enable it to get developed and $40k/t long term. 12 months ago the price was nearly double this, today the price is half of this. 12 months ago the price was healthy and the JORC was well received with it, today nothing could help in current conditions (barring a new drillhole into a miracle).
I expect the cobalt price to recover this year, but until it does there isn't going to be any cobalt assets developed for their cobalt (at least on the ASX), NZC obviously had the recent takeover offer and there would be a few holders there that will still be looking at a loss, many others will finish with a sub 100% gain from a couple of years holding, not a fantastic result in the end but much better than all others.
CLA was leveraged heavily to the price of cobalt, much more than any cobalt play (almost all had cobalt as a byproduct, some as a very minor byproduct). This is what made CLA so popular with cobalt bulls, it is also what has lead to this situation. All cobalt investors the past 12 months have been slaughtered (unless you have been suspended for a chunk of this time), with most of these projects not relying heavily on the cobalt price.
I would think BB has made a few mistakes along this journey, but compared to all other peers this project made much more progress than most others and is currently in a position that with them conserving funds, should be able to wait out 12+ months while making some further progress waiting for market conditions to become more favourable.
There is nothing BB can do about the cobalt price at the moment.
There is nothing BB could've done do make this project feasible in current conditions.
This will turn around very quickly with a strengthening cobalt price, will this be in months, years, or at all?
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