JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – An exploration programme at Aim-listed Armadale Capital’s Mahenge Liandu graphite project in Tanzania, aimed at upgrading its resource estimate, has kicked off.
The project currently has an existing Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant inferred mineral resource estimate of 40.9-million tonnes at an average grade of 9.41% total graphitic content (TGC), of which at least 32-million tonnes has an average grade of 10.47% TGC.
The exploration programme will include 2 500 m of reverse circulation drilling, while diamond drilling will be carried out to obtain representative core samples for additional metallurgical testwork.
Sample graphite concentrates will then be produced and supplied to potential offtake partners for testing.
Armadale director Nick Johansen said the project has continually exceeded the board’s expectations. “We look forward to continuing that trend and building on the positive results with the commencement of exploration activities in 2017.”
The resource update is targeted for completion in the third quarter. Once this has been established, Armadale will be in a position to assess plans for a prefeasibility study (PFS), alongside undertaking a detailed metallurgical testwork programme to facilitate discussions with potential offtake partners.