PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Minerals explorer Syrah Resources on Monday reported that its Balama graphite and vanadium project, in Mozambique, now contained over one-billion tons of resource, after a maiden inferred mineral resource was declared at Balama East.
Syrah said that the inferred resource at Balama East far exceeded the exploration target of between 300-million and 400-million tons.
The Balama East deposit is estimated to host some 579-million tons of ore at 10.6% graphite and 0.26% vanadium. Within this resource, a high-grade Mepiche zone was estimated to host an inferred resource of 145-million tons at 15.1% graphite and 0.43% vanadium.
The mineral resource estimate for Balama East has increased the total Balama project’s resource to 1.15-billion tons, at 10.2% graphite and 0.23% vanadium, to contain some 117-million tons of graphite and 2.7-million tons of vanadium.
Syrah said on Monday that, based on the global resource, the Balama project was the largest known graphite deposit in the world, while the contained vanadium resource was around six times the size of the world’s largest operating vanadium deposit.
The company told shareholders that the scoping study for the Balama West deposit was progressing to plan, and was expected to be released by June.
This, combined with the mineral resource update, metallurgy and marketing studies, would provide the foundation for a feasibility study, Syrah said.