London-listed Blencowe Resources has airfreighted 20 kg of concentrate from its Orom-Cross graphite project, in Uganda, to the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China to begin final stage metallurgical testing. 

Studies on the concentrate, which was recently processed through the Independent Metallurgical Operations (IMO) test facility in Perth, will further define the characteristics of the Orom-Cross graphite product. Blencowe said on January 16 that this is expected to ultimately lead to identifying offtake parties and, thereafter, signing binding offtake agreements for the sale of graphite concentrate. 

"We are now moving into the final stage of the Orom-Cross metallurgical work within the definitive feasibility study. . . We are confident that our Orom-Cross concentrate will be verified ahead as a high-quality end-product,” Blencowe chairperson Cameron Pearce said. 

The WUT specialises in testing final concentrate products and defining their characteristics to finetune processing options and assess upgradability for use in batteries and other high-value end applications.  

The WUT works in close association with China-based Jilin Huiyang New Material Technology Company, which will receive 100 t of raw material from Orom-Cross over the next few months to process through its existing processing facilities.  Blencowe will also send 150 kg of raw material to Jilin by airfreight as a precursor to the main bulk sample. 

By sending this 20 kg prior to the 100 t bulk sample, Jilin will be able to better understand the properties and chemical characteristics of the Orom-Cross concentrate and will be able to adjust its pilot processing facility accordingly to take in the larger scale raw product when it arrives later.  

This testing by the WUT and Jilin is expected to reconfirm historic results, Blencowe said, which have demonstrated the concentrate from Orom-Cross is of a consistently high quality. 

Once the 100 t of raw material is processed through Jilin's facility, it is anticipated that about 6 t of high-quality concentrate will be produced. This will represent a sample scale that is about 600 times larger than the fourth quarter IMO testing done in Perth last year and will confirm that a high-quality concentrate can be delivered in bulk from the Orom-Cross project. 

Blencowe said this is key to prequalification and securing future offtake agreements. 

Jilin is also expected to use some of the about 6 t of concentrate to conduct spheronised purified graphite (SPG) testing, where the Orom-Cross concentrate is lifted from a 96% to 97% loss on ignition (LOI) to a greater than 99.95% LOI end-product. 

Once this is achieved and the original-equipment manufacturers complete their own testing, then the Orom-Cross product may be deemed as prequalified and Blencowe will look to enter into binding offtake agreements for the sale of products.  

Blencowe said it is also sending an additional 5 kg of concentrate to Chicago-based graphite specialist American Energy Technologies (AET), which has expertise in SPG and expandability testing. 

Blencowe will have a parallel test process occurring to ensure that it ultimately achieves the best possible outcome for upgrading concentrate to the more than 99.95% SPG product. 

The AET testing is expected to take about three months to complete, after which Blencowe will know its end-product has been tested all the way through to lithium-ion battery-grade product. Testing will also be done on the coarse flake products to ensure they are suitable for expandability, which will ultimately lead to offtake contracts for this higher-value product class also. 

Blencowe said that, as lithium-ion batteries are expected to be the single most important demand pull for graphite ahead, completing quality assurance and quality checks to become certified as battery grade will be a significant milestone. 

"Graphite demand is lifting fast and we believe it will continue to do so ahead. The higher the quality of the end-product, the more likely we can lock in sales agreements and the better the prices we will achieve.  

“We expect graphite demand to continue to rise and shortages to unfold as there are only a limited number of new graphite projects with suitable, qualified end-product moving into production over the medium term, and most resource analysts are forecasting a substantial deficit from 2025, which they predict will become even more pronounced by the end of the decade," Pearce said.