PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Graphite hopeful Peninsula Mines has inked a nonbinding offtake and development cooperation memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Korean graphite producer Graphene Korea.
Under the MoU, Peninsula could potentially supply Graphene Korea up to 20 000 t/y of flake graphite concentrate. It could see the Australian company develop mining and processing facilities in South Korea, and potentially overseas, for selected projects that met the required metallurgical specifications.
The two companies would work together to identify projects that have the potential to produce flake graphite concentrate that met the specifications for production of Graphene Korea’s expandable graphite product.
“This agreement represents a significant milestone for the company in securing the first offtake and development cooperation MoU signed with a high-technology focused Korean graphite end-user,” said Peninsula MD Jon Dugdale.
“This MoU fits very well the Peninsula strategy to establish relationships with Korean graphite end-users and investors, and will allow the company to prioritise development of projects that have metallurgical characteristics that meet the end-users' required specifications.”
Peninsula is currently working to advance a number of flake graphite projects in Korea, including the Yongwon and the Deawon graphite projects.
The company is establishing a new subsidiary to house these graphite projects and to seek Korean investment to advance these projects, as well as to potentially source suitable concentrate for end-users such as Graphene Korea.