Name of the Project
Lac Rainy graphite project.

Location
Quebec, Canada.

Project Owner/s
Metals Australia.

Project Description
Lac Rainy hosts a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant mineral resource of 13.3-million tonnes at 11.5% total graphitic carbon (TGC) in the indicated and inferred category for 1.529-million tonnes of contained graphite using a 5% TGC cutoff.

Based on the mineral resource estimate, a scoping study has confirmed that the project can support a base case scenario, with graphite concentrate production of about 96 000 t/y, excluding the first and the last year, over an initial mine life of 14 years.

The project infrastructure includes site access roads, internal site roads, haul roads, power supply and distribution, buildings, accommodations, tailings storage facilities, water supply and management, which are required to complement the processing of graphite at a throughput rate of 2 500 t/d.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of $123-million and internal rate of return of 18.9%, with a payback of 3.4 years.

Capital Expenditure
Initial capital investment for the openpit mine, process plant and infrastructure is estimated at $189.8-million

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Metals Australia has announced the appointment of mining engineer Paul Ferguson as CEO to drive the development of the project.

The new CEO has said that while the mineral inventory generated by the 2020 scoping study  demonstrated an initial life of operation of about 14 years, there is significant potential for that mine life to be extended by increasing the Lac Rainy resource. He has noted that the initial resource and mine life was generated from just two defined pit shells (combined 1 km of strike) in two separate areas of the Carheil Trend at Lac Rainy, covering just 1.6 km.

Analysis of the drilling indicates potential for the resource to expand in all directions, including in the 600 m gap between the two pit shells used in the scoping study.

Ferguson has said that Lac Rainy will be advanced on multiple fronts, the first of which is a drilling programme to extend and increase the current mineral resource, and gain a better appreciation of the untapped potential of the new regional graphitic trends. The second is to advance the original scoping study  to the prefeasibility study stage. 

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Magnor Exploration (exploration results); CoxsRocks (resource estimate); SGS Canada (metallurgical testwork); Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (market report); DRA Americas (mine plan, process and infrastructure design, capital and operating costs estimate, and financial analysis).

Contact Details for Project Information
Metals Australia, tel +61 8 9481 7833 or email info@metalsaustralia.com.au.