Aim-listed Armadale director Nick Johansen says the company is gaining momentum with confirming and highlighting the commercial viability of its Mahenge Liandu graphite project, in Tanzania, and is on track for a decision to mine in early 2019.

“The completion of the scoping study in April was a significant milestone and the results, which underpinned the highly robust fundamentals which could be achieved at Mahenge Liandu, gave further support to our strategy of fast-tracking work ahead of a decision to mine in early 2019.

“We believe there is now a window of opportunity for Armadale to capitalise on our various competitive advantages at Mahenge Liandu – made possible by the simple geology of the project, the well-understood metallurgy, the quality of the high-grade mineralisation and the relatively straightforward mining techniques which we anticipate would be amenable to exploit the deposit.”

The scoping study resulted in a 25% increase in the total resource to 51.5-million tonnes at 9.3% total graphitic carbon, including 38.7-million tonnes indicated at 9.3% and 12.4-million tonnes at 9.1% total graphitic carbon.

The company is confident that the mine will require low capital expenditure and low operating expenditure, and will be capable of delivering a high-grade and commercially attractive product, which is in high demand for multiple industrial applications.

Mahenge Liandu is flanked by some of the world’s major new graphite discoveries, and Armadale sees the recent political and legislative developments in Tanzania, particularly the formation of the new Mining Commission, as a significant and positive move to reaffirm the country’s position as one of Africa’s premier mining destinations. 

“We are encouraged by the impact that the Mining Commission has had in just a few months since its formation, and we view this as a further signal of Tanzania’s general spirit of cooperation when looking to foreign investment and unlocking strategic natural resources for the benefit of all stakeholders,” said Johansen.

Meanwhile, the company is continuing its efforts to complete the sale of its secondary investment in the Mpokoto gold project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.