This morning in a surprise announcement, Blackstone (ASX:BSX) appointed highly-experienced hydrometallurgical engineer Tony Tang as General Manager of Project Development for the downstream business. This appointment follows the Company’s recent announcement outlining plans to expand downstream refining capacity and technical capability.
Mr Tang is a pioneer of nickel processing solutions and has led several R&D initiatives in connection to the Lithium-ion battery industry. He has extensive experience in the end-to-end design and development of second-generation hydrometallurgical nickel projects, including spending nearly a decade at the Murrin Murrin operations.
Mr Tang has collaborated with leaders in the battery industry, and his experience includes R&D during the early stages of the development of Nickel: Cobalt: Manganese (NCM) precursors. Mr Tang has achieved high purity NCM acetate precipitate for several confidential clients based in Japan.
Mr Tang’s experience is invaluable to Blackstone’s Downstream Business Unit (DBU), which includes plans to attract customers, design and construct a pilot plant in Vietnam, and ensure NCM precursor production meets battery-grade specification.
Mr Tang is a chartered professional member of AusIMM and has worked with top tier engineering consulting firms where he extended his excellence in feasibility studies, detailed design, construction, commissioning, operation ramp up and sustaining capital projects execution. He has led many complex chemical processing projects and has been a process matter expert on the panel for many studies, including the Pt Antam - direct nickel process, Arafura Nolan, Hastings - Brockman, and Tianqi (LHPP1 &2) lithium projects.
