At the 100% owned Springdale Graphite Project (Springdale), site of the Company’s planned graphite mine, a ten hole diamond drilling program is currently underway. Drilling results will provide important data for geotechnical studies required for mine planning, waste characterisation, and resource classification, as well as additional sample material for further metallurgical testwork which will be used to inform process design criteria for the graphite concentrator.
Managing Director and CEO Andrew Worland said global pressures on both Lithium-ion battery manufacturers and industrial graphite end users, including geopolitical pressures, were continuing to build demand for graphite from markets such as Australia.
“The once in a generation growth in battery and vehicle manufacturing capacity, that North America, Europe and Asia have committed to developing, depend on supply from mines like Springdale that will offer unparallelled supply chain certainty,” Mr Worland said.
Battery anode processing testwork on Springdale concentrates is also continuing. The comprehensive program, being undertaken at a number of specialised overseas testing facilities, includes spheroidisation optimisation, leach purification option evaluations, production of both purified and unpurified spherical graphite samples for third party evaluation and coating options, and further electrochemical studies.
Flora and fauna reports for Springdale from seasonal surveys completed in 2022 and 2023 confirm that the mine would have little impact on natural vegetation or wildlife. Additional studies are underway to support environmental approvals and permitting, including hydrological and tailings storage assessments.
At Collie, the centre of the Company’s downstream processing operations, various flake product sizes have been successfully produced using the Micronising Qualification Plant commissioned earlier this year. The products meet a range of technical specifications for end users. Critically, flake size distributions produced are suitable for both advanced battery anode materials and other industrial applications. Product samples are now planned to be Figure 1 shows the laser particle size distributions of micronised graphite sample products produced at the company’s Micronising Qualification Plant in Collie.
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