Gratomic Inc has announced results of initial metallurgical tests performed on trenched material obtained from its 100%-owned Capim Grosso graphite project in Brazil.
The company added that the metallurgical results obtained to-date are encouraging to support the plan for large-scale processing of the Capim Grosso deposit.
SGS Lakefield of Ontario completed two scoping level flotation tests using two different flotation circuit configurations simulating the Aukam processing circuit currently under commissioning in Namibia.
READ: Gratomic announces launch of ‘Operational Readiness’ of its Aukam Graphite Processing Plant in Namibia
"Gratomic intends to develop its Capim Grosso project at a similar pace as it developed its Aukam Graphite Project in Namibia,” said Gratomic CEO Arno Brand in a statement. “With these newly obtained metallurgical results, the Company has the confidence to expedite the bulk metallurgical and pilot testing processes at Capim Grosso.”
At the site, Gratomic said a combined concentrate grade of 97.5% C(t) was achieved in one test with total carbon grades reaching as high as 98.6% in several particle-size fractions.
It also said the open circuit graphite recovery was 70.1%, as about 20% of the graphite losses were associated with intermediated streams and most of these graphite units will report to the final concentrate during closed circuit operation. Optimization of rougher and primary cleaning conditions are expected to reduce graphite losses to those tailings' streams.
Based on the flotation results obtained to-date and experience with comparable graphite projects, the company said a combined concentrate grade of 97% C(t) with a closed-circuit graphite recovery of 85-90% is projected. Further testing on additional samples and process optimization will be conducted to confirm these projections.
As Gratomic proceeds with the current 5,000-meter drilling program, the company said it will continue to conduct new tests with the drill core samples to optimize engineering plans for the flotation circuit and factor in the requirements to process the material at depth.
To quantify the attractiveness of the project, the team has initiated preliminary engineering for the project including completing a mass and water balance, process flow diagrams (PFDs), and process design criteria (PDC). This engineering design will facilitate the development of operating and capital expenses for the project.
Armando Farhate, Gratomic’s chief operating officer and head of graphite marketing and sales, added: "Since our first contact with the Capim Grosso asset, we were convinced that it could become a word-class deposit. These results raise our level of confidence and will allow us to fast track the engineering process, and subsequently, plant construction."
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