JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Australian ruby miner Mustang Resources’ share price on the ASX surged on Monday morning, after the company announced it had made a high-grade graphite discovery at its Caula project, in Mozambique.
“This high-grade graphite will enable us to generate a top-quality product at a relatively low cost, increasing margins and providing protection against any price volatility,” MD Christiaan Jordaan said in a statement.
Results from the first five diamond drill holes have returned grades of up to 26% total graphitic carbon (TGC).
The recent diamond holes drilled on the project have an average of 15.9% TGC within the mineralised graphitic mineralisation zone from 10 m from surface to 65.68 m from surface.
The graphite mineralisation is shallow with high grades close to the surface, including 23.2% TGC at 11 m from surface, 23.6% TGC at 12 m from surface and 22.8%TGC at 13 m from surface.
The highest TGC value recorded for this hole is 24.9% TGC at 24.44 m from surface.
The Caula drill core is now on its way to a Perth lab, which will assess its metallurgical characteristics.
These results, combined with the assays, will be used to calculate a maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource estimate.
Mustang expects to publish this estimate in the June quarter followed by an initial scoping study in August.
The company also intends to undertake a comprehensive analysis of flake size distribution and preliminary flow sheets for high-quality graphite concentrate products, aimed at confirming field observations which suggest the Caula graphite deposit contains large flake sizes.
The company’s shares closed the day up 9.64%.