Cobalt Blue Holdings (ASX:COB) said re-evaluated project parameters for the Kwinana cobalt refinery in Western Australia increased the post-tax net present value for the project to AU$155 million from AU$90 million, while the internal rate of return rose to 32% from 23%, according to a Friday Australian bourse filing.

The company re-evaluated project parameters in response to changed market conditions, revising feedstock sourcing, diversifying the cobalt products, and refreshing underlying economic assumptions.

The refinery business plan targets an initial production capacity of around 3,000 tonnes of contained cobalt, with two-thirds of this contained cobalt in the form of cobalt sulfate and a third as cobalt alloy grade metal, per the filing. The feedstock source is now estimated to be cobalt hydroxide.

In the absence of Australian-sourced feedstock, early operations will rely on imported cobalt hydroxide as feed, the filing said.

Cobalt Blue Holdings' shares tumbled 9% in recent trading on Friday.