PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Graphite developer Valence Industries has reported a 50% increase in the graphite resource of its Uley pit 2 project, in South Australia.
The project is estimated to host about 4.54-million tonnes of resource, grading 11.63% graphitic carbon, for 520 000 t of contained graphite. Some 68% of the mineral resource was classified as measured and indicated.
“This material resource upgrade strongly supports the programme to expand processing capacity at our Uley graphite operations and matches the level of demand from our customers,” said Valence MD and CEO Christopher Darby.
“At the same time, increasing the size of our resource supports the confidence being shown in the company by its financiers as we move to accelerate the significant expansion programme under our feasibility study.”
A previously completed feasibility study estimated that the Phase 2 expansion of the Uley project would require a capital investment of about A$37-million, over a three-year period, to increase production from the current Phase 1 level of 14 000 t/y to 50 000 t/y.
The expansion of the Uley site would provide additional processing capacity in 25 000 t/y increments of graphite output, to reach 64 000 t/y, to effectively match market demand.
The update to the Pit 2 resource was based on 48% of the planned drilling programme for the Uley project, with a drill campaign over the remaining 52% of the programme set to focus on the southern area of Uley Pit 2.
An update on the Uley pit ore reserve was due in May this year.