Armadale begins 2017 drilling season at Mahenge Liandu
Armadale Capital
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16:55 25/04/24
Africa-focussed natural resources investment company Armadale announced on Wednesday that the exploration programme for the 2017 season at its 100%-owned Mahenge Liandu Graphite Project in Tanzania had now commenced.
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The AIM-traded firm said the programme was designed to upgrade and expand the existing JORC-compliant inferred mineral resource estimate of 40.9Mt @ 9.41% total graphitic content (TGC), of which at least 32Mt has an average grade of 10.47% TGC.
It said the programme would include 2,500m of reverse circulation (RC) drilling designed to expand the size of the resource as well as to enhance the resource category to indicated, with a resource update expected in the third quarter.
Diamond drilling would be carried out to obtain representative core samples for additional metallurgical test work, and sample graphite concentrates would be produced and supplied to potential offtake partners for testing.
The board confirmed that results of laboratory metallurgical test work, aimed at increasing the graphite purity to 99.95%, was expected in the coming weeks.
The company remained fully funded to complete the 2017 drilling programme
“Having defined a maiden mineral resource estimate of 40.9Mt @ 9.41%, produced a graphite concentrate at 99.1% TGC via environmentally friendly, low cost extraction processes and crucially identified significant expansion potential to build upon both of these results, the Mahenge Liandu Project has continually exceeded the board’s expectations,” said Armadale director Nick Johansen.
“We look forward to continuing that trend and building upon the positive results with the commencement of exploration activities in 2017.”
Johansen said the aim of the current drilling programme was to upgrade both the size and confidence level of the deposit.
“Once this has been established the board will be in a position to assess plans for a pre-feasibility study on the project alongside undertaking a detailed metallurgical test work programme to facilitate discussions with potential offtake partners.”