logo-loader

Berkwood Resources is making significant progress on the Lac Guéret Extensions graphite project in Quebec

Published: 13:08 13 Jun 2018 BST

1528891944_Berkwood-Resources---drill-core
Drill core from the Lac Guéret Extensions project

Lac Guéret graphite property shows real promise

Berkwood Resources Ltd (CVE:BKR) holds the Lac Guéret Extensions graphite property in Manicouagan County, Quebec, three hours driving time from the city of Baie-Comeau. Easy access is provided via a major secondary road and numerous tertiary forest roads that run through the property.

The 100%-owned Lac Guéret East Block consists of 38 claims covering 2,052 hectares. Berkwood also has an option to earn a 100%-interest in the Lac Guéret South Block which consists of 106 claims totalling 5,714 hectares. It is now one of the largest landholders in the area.

Contiguous project owned by Mason Graphite is well advanced

Berkwood’s Lac Guéret project directly borders Mason Graphite’s property to the east and south and shares similar prospective geology including along-strike stratigraphic units, structure and geophysical anomalies.

Mason Graphite’s project has at least 75mln tonnes of high grade large flake graphite, and has already demonstrated robust economics showing a US$160mln cost to build the mine, a 2.5 year payback and a minimum of 24 years of mine life.

What’s more, there are significant other graphite showings in the area.

Good recent progress at Lac Guéret

Berkwood has recently completed three drill programs for a total of 4,006 metres. 27 holes were drilled and all hit mineralization, with 26 of the 27 holes having significant graphite intersections. One hole intersected 17.37% Cgr across 130 metres. Graphite grades returned have run as high as 33%.

Drill programme represents a success, says QP

“With the 130 metres intercept near surface and a length-weighted composite grade of 17.37% Cgr, the Phase 3 drill program represents a success,” says Edward Lyons, the company’s project lead and qualified person.

“The importance of the thinner intersections is that they can mark the edges of thicker beds of graphite. Industry and metallurgical experience in highly metamorphic graphitic rocks has shown that the medium and lower graphite grade material can yield higher percentages of coarse flake graphite recovery, making these units potentially of similar economic value. The true widths and persistence of graphite in almost all of Berkwood’s drill holes to date show the potential of the Zone 1 anomaly.”

More work to be done, and money in the bank to do it

Notwithstanding the recent drill success, a large anomalous area remains to be tested, and could add further significant mineralisation to the roster. The company raised C$1.5mln at the beginning of 2018, so is funded for a while yet.