Construction work crews have mobilised to the Molo graphite mine site, in Madagascar, starting civils and earthworks in preparation for the delivery and installation of the processing plant.
Toronto-based NextSource Materials last month said that the Covid-19 travel restrictions and cyclone activity in Madagascar had delayed the start of earthworks and civils work at the mine.
NextSource expects to receive the processing plant, which in February passed factory acceptance testing, at the mine site in the second quarter, followed by the installation and commissioning in the third quarter. Phase 1 of the processing plant was designed and built using an all-modular approach and is capable of processing 240 000 t/y of ore and producing about 17 000 t/y of high-quality SuperFlake graphite concentrate.
When commissioned, the Molo mine will become one of the few operating graphite mines outside China.