PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Mineral Resources (MinRes) and Hexagon Resources have launched a feasibility study (FS) for the McIntosh flake graphite joint venture (JV), in Western Australia.
Hexagon shareholders in May this year approved the JV, which will see MinRes earn a 51% interest in the project by managing and effectively funding all of the development costs of the project, to commercial production.
The FS is targeted for completion by October next year, allowing a decision to mine.
MinRes said on Friday that, as JV manager, the company has approved an initial budget to allow for a comprehensive drilling programme of some 12 000 m to start in early August, as the first on-ground work for the FS.
The drilling programme will test the resource potential of new targets east of the known resource, confirm and upgrade the existing targets and resources, and generate some 17 t of core samples for metallurgical testwork.
The drilling programme will be completed by October this year.
McIntosh currently has an existing mineral resource of some 21.3-million tonnes grading 4.5% graphitic carbon.