Walkabout Resources Ltd (ASX:WKT) has completed an infill and extensional drilling program at the 70% owned Lindi Jumbo Graphite Project in south-eastern Tanzania.
Infill drilling hit multiple wide intersections of coarse, high grade graphite, which will be used to upgrade and increase the size of the resource model.
Trenching was also completed on several outcropping areas to improve knowledge relating to the resource upgrade.
Allan Mulligan, managing director, commented: “We have been on site for the entire resource infill and extension drilling program and we find the orebody is continuous and fits well with the existing mineralisation model.
“The high grade zones are visually distinct and extensive and we look forward to receiving the assay results and subsequent resource upgrade.”
Lindi Jumbo Graphite Project
The company has a 70% interest in a total exploration area of 325 square kilometres in southeast Tanzania.
During the June quarter, the company finalised the Integrated Study Level 1 (scoping study), a technical and financial assessment based on the high grade Inferred Resource.
Due to regulations, the technical and financial results of this report are to be used for internal planning purposes only and are not able to be released to the market.
Following a review of the report, the company board unanimously agreed to proceed to the next level of study, which included the drilling program that has now just completed.
With the current low capex-early cash flow strategy now approved, Walkabout is aiming to enter production in 2017 through a surface mining and processing operation at the site.
Recent test work at Lindi produced a super jumbo, high margin graphite concentrate containing up to 25.7% super jumbo flakes and grades up to 98.85% total graphitic content.
These verified results place the project in a high class of revenue per tonne of saleable concentrate.
Metallurgical testwork progress
Results, from both the high grade and low grade samples as well as the surface material have established potential graphite concentrate from Lindi Jumbo as having the highest retention of natural flake sizes at a grade in excess of 96% total graphitic content (TGC) in the Australian listed peer group.
The results place the Lindi Jumbo Graphite Project as best in class for recovered flake size across all aspiring East African graphite developers.
Grades of between 95.6% TGC and 97.1% TGC were achieved for the super jumbo flake grade material which exceed the initial target grade of 94% TGC.
The jumbo flake material returned grades between 94.4% TGC and 96.6% TGC.
The company has also demonstrated it can achieve concentrate grades of up to 97.1% TGC without the use of chemicals.
Analysis
Visual results from this completed drilling and trenching program are positive and confirming assays will be highly anticipated by the market.
With metallurgical results already indicating a basket price for Lindi Jumbo concentrate valued at US$1,529 to US$2,567, the assays for this program have the potential to further strengthen economics of the project.
Furthermore, highly pure natural graphite such as that found at Lindi is suitable for sphericalisation and use in the lithium-ion battery market.
The development of the Lindi project is in line with Walkabout’s new dual lithium-graphite focus.
The company is also awaiting geochemical assays from field work completed at its lithium licenses in Tanzania and is awaiting an update from the Namibian Ministry with regard to its lithium license applications.
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