On Friday 20 October 20, 2023, China announced export controls on both natural and synthetic graphite, citing national security concerns.
It’s the latest in a long series of tit-for-tat announcements from various countries about various commodities, that stretches back at least to the Trump days.
Ora Banda Mining Ltd (ASX:OBM) has updated estimates for its 100% owned Davyhurst Gold Project mineral resources and ore reserves.
OBM owns an existing centralised 1.2 Mtpa processing hub, as well as additional established infrastructure at Davyhurst. This has facilitated the rapid unlocking of the value contained within the known resource base held by the company.
Empire Metals Ltd (AIM:EEE) told investors it has now completed two of three planned diamond drill holes at the Pitfield site, in Western Australia, where it is driving a major exploration push.
Its first hole, positioned near ‘Mt Scratch’, identified titanium mineralisation throughout the entire length of hole.
Tirupati Graphite PLC (LSE:TGR, OTCQX:TGRHF) has appointed Murat Dogan Erden as its new non-executive director.
"We are delighted to welcome Murat to the board as a non-executive director,” said executive chair Shishir Poddar.
Bradda Head Lithium Limited (AIM:BHL, OTCQB:BHLIF, TSX-V:BHLI) is not going to slow the pace of exploration in the remainder of the current financial year, according to its chairman Ian Stalker.
“The pace of development will continue through the final half of the year," he said.
Greatland Gold PLC (AIM:GGP, OTC:GRLGF) said development of the Havieron project is to be temporarily paused to assess how to manage the water extraction from an aquifer above the main orebody.
At more than 2,030 metres on 8 October 2023, some 770 metres of development remain before the decline reaches the top of the Havieron orebody, the junior said.
Bradda Head Lithium Limited (AIM:BHL, OTCQB:BHLIF, TSX-V:BHLI) has received US$2.5 million from Lithium Royalty Corporation following a project milestone at the Basin project in Arizona, where the next drilling programme also promises to unlock a further milestone payment.
Today’s US$2.5 million payment comes as the project’s mineral resource estimate surpassed 1 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), as reported in late September. It was the result of 2,355 metres of drilling completed in 14 holes.
NextSource Materials Inc. has made its first bulk container shipment of SuperFlake graphite from its Molo mine in Madagascar.
This first shipment of Molo SuperFlake graphite has been sent to the company's downstream technical partner's Battery Anode Facility (BAF) to be processed into spheronized, purified graphite (SPG) that will then be further processed into coated SPG (CSPG) as part of large scale, multi-step verification tests being conducted by electric vehicle (EV) supply chains in South Korea and Japan.
Graphite groups got big share mark-ups on news China has tightened restrictions on the export of certain types of carbon material.
Tirupati Graphite, which jumped 25% this morning, said it expects the price of graphite to rise once the controls are introduced in December.
Anglo Asian Mining PLC (AIM:AAZ, OTC:AGXKF) said further drilling at the Gilar deposit in Azerbaijan confirms an extension to earlier discoveries with intercepts of up to 21 metres (m) of continuous gold and copper mineralisation.
Drilling in Gilar’s deeper zone has already indicated gold, copper and zinc with an intercept thickness of over 20m and this latest drilling further extends this, it added.
Metals One PLC (AIM:MET1) has reported that two drill holes at the SRH Råna project in Norway have shown “high-grade massive sulphide nickel, copper, and cobalt mineralization”.
The results from the two holes indicate strike length of 150 metres, within a previously undrilled area which is open along strike and down dip, the company said in a statement.
Tirupati Graphite PLC (LSE:TGR, OTCQX:TGRHF) said it expects prices to rise following China's introduction of export controls from the start of December in a move it says will safeguard its national interests.
Flake graphite is the largest constituent of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs) and grid energy storage with supplies currently dominated by China.
Antipa Minerals Ltd (ASX:AZY) has furthered its Minyari Dome Gold-Copper Project exploration goals with the award of another $220,000 exploration grant from the Western Australian Government under its Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS).
The scheme is designed to facilitate high-quality, technical and economically based projects that promote new exploration concepts and are assessed by a panel on the basis of geoscientific and exploration targeting merit.