BlackEarth Minerals NL (ASX:BEM) has materially increased its total graphite inventory by tonnes and grade at its 100%-owned Maniry Graphite Project in Southern Madagascar, with the completion of a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource estimation for the Razafy Northwest deposit.
The recently completed exploration program has delivered a JORC-compliant indicated and inferred resource for Razafy Northwest of 2.9 million tonnes at 9.82% total graphitic carbon (TGC).
There is evidence of a higher-grade core of around +12% TGC in both the east and west lenses. which will be a key focus of future exploration activities commencing in 2022.
The near-surface resource remains open along strike and down dip with the potential to add to the company’s overall inventory of defined high-grade graphite.
“Exciting outcomes”
Managing director Tom Revy said: “The success at Maniry of discovering and subsequently defining a high-grade resource is testament to the skills and experience our team has in Madagascar.
“This additional discovery at Razafy NW high-grade resources near-surface has the potential to materially enhance the project economics and significantly increase the projects life, and will be further investigated as part of the ongoing DFS.
“These results are exciting outcomes for the company and we look forward to updating the market with additional positive results in the short term”
Resource classification
The majority of the resource has been classified with a high degree of confidence at an indicated classification, with the remainder classified as inferred.
This resource estimate is the culmination of its preliminary diamond drilling exploration program to identify shallow high-grade zones at Razafy NW.
The successful program was completed earlier this year and will form an integral component to the current definitive feasibility study (DFS) activities, which have been progressing in parallel with the resource estimation process.
Scoping study
BlackEarth Minerals has commenced an update to its scoping study to outline the impact of the results on the Maniry Project's overall economics.
It will include improvements and changes to a number of economic and project factors.
Future plans
The impact of the additional high-grade resource to BlackEarth’s defined inventory is material and potentially will add significant value to the project’s economics.
BlackEarth’s executive team continues to identify new and higher-grade areas, which will be followed up in 2022.
The potential of the current 3 kilometres by 7 kilometres Maniry graphite domain remains significant with an exploration target of 260-380 million tonnes at 6-8% TGC.