PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Graphite developer Black Rock Mining has signed another offtake agreement at its Mahenge project, in Tanzania.
The company on Monday told shareholders that it has inked an offtake agreement with China’s Qingdao Fujin Graphite Company to supply 15 000 t a year of sized graphite concentrate for up to three years.
The new offtake agreement was in addition to the agreement signed with Heilongjiang Bahao last week, with the two offtakes representing around 44% of the proposed steady-state and annual production of the Mahenge project.
“The signing of this offtake agreement with a key producer of anode precursors in China reflects strong demand for our premium quality graphite flake and demonstrates the ongoing success of our product marketing strategy,” said Black Rock CEO John de Vries.
The offtake agreement was subject to Black Rock completing the construction of the Mahenge mine, and the start of production.
A recent definitive feasibility study on the project found that Phase 1 of the project would cost some $115-million to develop, with the Phase 2 project requiring a further capital spend of $69.5-million, while Phase 3 would require an $84.2-million spend.
The project is expected to deliver 250 000 t/y of flake graphite over a mine life of 32 years.