International Graphite will confirm an updated graphite resource in a fortnight, incorporating more solid assay results from recent infill and exploration drilling at its Springdale project near the Western Australian town of Hopetoun.
The company says four new graphite deposits based on airborne electromagnetic anomalies were confirmed by the drilling campaign, but also left more potential upside with three targets still to be drilled.
Impressive assays from the Mason Bay deposit include 18m at 10 per cent total graphitic carbon (TGC) from 12m downhole, including 3m at 29.5 per cent from 22m, 3m at 19.1 per cent from 40m, including 2m at 27.5 per cent from 40m at the Springdale Central deposit, and 15m at 12.4 per cent from 8m, including 5m at 29 per cent from 26m at the Springdale Western deposit.
More than 270 holes were completed during the company’s 2022-23 drill campaign, with assays from a dozen holes still pending.
The assay results from both infill and exploration drilling are clear evidence of the enormous potential of our landholdings at Springdale. We started with an aeromagnetic survey highlighting seven possible targets. So far, we have only drilled four of these and each one has returned graphite mineralisation. We still have large tracts of land to explore which makes us very excited about the potential for Springdale to support our plans for a long-term mine-to-market graphite operation in Western Australia. International Graphite managing director and chief executive officer Andrew Worland
Springdale currently holds an inferred mineral resource of 15.6 million tonnes at 6 per cent TGC. It includes a high-grade component of 2.6 million tonnes at an impressive 17.5 per cent TGC. The project is a near-surface, potentially open-pit mining operation on WA’s spectacular south coast in the Ravensthorpe Shire.
International Graphite plans to process its raw graphite into a feedstock suitable for use as anode material at its Collie research and development facility, some 450km away. The Collie facility has a pilot plant that is already producing micronised and spheroidised graphite and management expects to produce some 4000 annual tonnes of micronised graphite – the ultrafine material used in lithium-ion battery anodes.
The company is aiming to be the State’s first mine-to-market producer of micronised graphite suitable for lithium-ion batteries. And the hits just keep coming as it roars to the top of the charts with a song book of beautiful assays and an audience clamouring for its impending resource release.
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