Applied Graphite Technologies Corporation (TSX-V:AGT) CEO Don Baxter joined Proactive to discuss the company's latest geophysical survey results at the Queen's Mine Complex in Sri Lanka.
He highlighted the significance of finding graphite veins using innovative geophysics, such as induced polarization (IP) techniques, which allow the company to detect veins at depths of up to 400 meters.
Proactive: You've got some results out from a geophysical survey that you were doing at the Queen's Mine Complex in Sri Lanka. We’ll get to that in a second, but maybe just remind everyone a little bit about the operations there so everyone's aware.
Don Baxter: Yes. So, we have what we call the Queen's Mine Complex, a couple hundred hectares of land. We own most of it, which is unique in probably any mining space to actually own the land we’re mining. It's in the best geology of Sri Lanka for graphite, and the terrain allows us quick access.
The beauty of Sri Lankan graphite is it's 95% carbon in the ground, which means we can mine it without primary processing. This results in very low capital expenditures. We’re aiming to put graphite into bags before the end of this year.
So, as I mentioned, you've got some results from the survey. Can you tell us what you were doing and why the results are significant?
The thing with Sri Lanka is that it’s always been difficult to mine vein graphite because it extends to depth. Traditionally, they would chase the veins with a drill and use VLF (very low frequency) techniques to detect anomalies. Graphite is very conductive, but we’ve introduced modern geophysics, which are mostly unheard of in Sri Lanka.
Using techniques like induced polarization (IP), we drive electricity into the ground to detect and measure veins, down to 400 meters or even deeper. This allows us to plan the mine more efficiently, and we’ve already had tremendous success identifying the veins.
You've found three anomalies, ranging in depth. How significant are those, especially since they’re not overly deep?
The key thing is, these veins come to surface. We know they extend down hundreds of meters. The very first line we ran cross-sectioned three veins. Our geologists confirmed the anomalies represented individual veins, and that was just on the first line. We’ve run many more lines since then, and more reports will be coming soon. Our goal is to maximize production, as the battery industry requires large quantities of graphite.
How does this technique compare to what’s used in Canada or other places?
The geophysics techniques we’re using are new to Sri Lanka but not new to places like Canada. These tools allow us to identify a lot of graphite very quickly, which is crucial because the battery industry needs hundreds of thousands of tons of graphite.
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and style