PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A scoping study has estimated that the Ancuabe graphite project, in Mozambique, could produce about 60 000 t/y over 17 years, ASX-listed Triton Minerals reported on Wednesday.
The company said the project would likely require a $83-million capital investment, with operating costs estimated at about $601/t over the life of the mine.
“The results of the scoping study demonstrate the robustness of the Ancuabe graphite project with anticipated strong operating margins and near-term payback,” said Triton MD Peter Canterbury.
The scoping study is based on a mineral resource of 27.9-million tonnes, grading 6% total graphitic carbon, for 1.68-million tonnes of contained graphite.
Ancuabe is expected to have a net present value of between $128-million and $246-million, and a pay-back period of between 2.7 and 4.8 years.
“Our key advantage to other projects include proximity to road, port and power infrastructure, historical high-grade production in the region, and very favourable mix of flake size distribution and high total graphitic carbon concentrate grades,” Canterbury said.
He added that the completion of the scoping study was a critical milestone in Triton’s strategy for fast-tracking the development studies of Ancuabe, with the company now starting feasibility studies that it planned to complete in late 2017.
Triton has also started offtake and marketing discussions through its investor Shandong Tianya, as well as metallurgical and product testwork for feasibility studies.
Technical investigations to support other aspects of the feasibility study, including water and geotechnical investigations, process equipment selection investigation and continued environmental baseline studies, will also start in the second quarter.