Castle Minerals: A sleeping graphite play jolted to life
Castle Minerals Managing Director Steve Stone on 3AW, 2GB & 6PR Bulls N' Bears Report
Listen to ASX-listed Castle Minerals Managing Director Steve Stone talk to Matt Birney on the Bulls N’ Bears Report about Castle’s historic graphite project in Ghana that has just reported its first JORC 2012 resource – and it still has plenty of legs left in it.
TO LISTEN TO THE CASTLE MINERALS AUDIO INTERVIEW - CLICK BELOW
Castle Minerals has projects that span the length and breadth of WA covering everything from copper to gold, lead zinc, graphite and lithium. However it is Castle’s Kambale graphite project in Ghana that is grabbing the headlines right now. Castle has been sitting on Kambale for years, even before graphite staked its claim as part of the lithium battery juggernaut. The company has just brought the outdated Kambale graphite resource up to JORC 2012 standards and it looks like it still has plenty more to give.
RADIO INTERVIEW - TRANSCRIPT
Matt Birney - Welcome to Bulls N' Bears brought to you today by Castle Minerals.
Matt Birney - ASX code: CDT.
Matt Birney - I'm Matt Birney and I'm joined now by the Managing Director of Castle Minerals, Steve Stone.
Matt Birney - Hi Steve.
Steve Stone - Hi Matt.
Matt Birney - Okay so Castle Minerals has projects that span the length and breadth of WA, covering everything from copper to gold, lead, zinc, graphite and lithium.
Matt Birney - However it is Castle’s Kambale graphite project in Ghana that is currently grabbing the headlines right now. Castle has been sitting on Kambale for years, even before graphite staked its claim as part of the lithium battery juggernaut.
Matt Birney - The company has just brought the outdated Kambale graphite resource up to JORC 2012 standards and it looks like it still has plenty more to give.
Matt Birney - Okay Steve what is your JORC 2012 graphite resource at Kambale right now?
Steve Stone - Matt, it's 15.6 million tonnes at a very good grade of nine per cent graphite so that means there's 1.4 million tonnes of graphite in the deposit at the moment.
Matt Birney - And you've just upgraded it, is that right?
Steve Stone - That's right, we inherited an older resource but this one is much more reliable. It's up to the latest reporting standards and it's based on three times more meters and three times more holes. A very firm base to move forward from.
Matt Birney - Alright well I know you think it's got more legs in it , can you specifically tell me where you think you'll be able to add more tonnes to that resource?
Steve Stone - Yeah we see a lot of opportunity to make that even bigger Matt. There was a lot of holes that intersected some new targets that we were testing and what we need to do is go back and infill around those and we think we can make a material increase to the existing resource. Plus the resource that we've just announced is only based on about a five kilometre square area and we've got a license which is 150 square kilometres and we believe there will be other deposits on that license so we've got some boots on the ground right now trying to demonstrate that.
Matt Birney - Metallurgy is important for graphite. Have you done any testing on your graphite up there?
Steve Stone - Yes Matt we did a laser test for it last year and we're doing our second phase now we're right in the middle of that. The first phase went really well and the second phase is actually looking at producing a bulk concentrate which will then look to see if we can make into material that can be put into battery anodes which is where we're aiming to sell this product.
Matt Birney - What's the infrastructure like around the project? Does have modern roads, power or is it sort of stranded?
Steve Stone - It's absolutely amazing actually Matt, it's right in the north of Ghana but we've got a major power line that comes almost to site and that's actually hydropower so we don't, it's green power and we won't have to put out the capital to build that it's already there. There's great roads, there's an airport and there's plenty of water so it ticks all the boxes.
Matt Birney - Very quickly give me the two or three best drill hole results from that project to date.
Steve Stone - Matt we've had holes of 34 meters, 8.7 per cent total carbon, we've had 58 meters at 12 per cent and we've had 69 meters at 10. Another 50 at 10.7 and there's lots more so this is a really good solid homogeneous deposit with some excellent grades.
Matt Birney - Steve Stone from Castle Minerals.
Matt Birney - Thanks for joining me on Bulls N' Bears and remember we're only here to give you information not advice which you should of course seek independently.
Matt Birney - I'm Matt Birney and this is Bulls N' Bears.
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