Chase Mining Corporation (ASX:CML) reports it has completed the acquisition of Green Critical Minerals which holds the right to earn up to an 80% interest in graphite mineral rights contained in the McIntosh Graphite Project in Western Australia.
The McIntosh Project is located between 40km to 90km north-northeast of Halls Creek in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, and is believed to be the third largest ASX listed graphite project in Australia.
McIntosh has a mineral resource estimate (MRE) total of 23.8 million tonnes @ 4.45% total contained graphite for around 1.1 million tonnes of contained graphite, of which 81% is classified in the higher confidence indicated category with over 40,000m of graphite targeted drilling on the project to date and ‘extensive’ metallurgical testwork completed.
Chase Mining confirms that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimates announced in June continue to apply and have not materially changed, and the company is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the resources included.
The company states McIntosh is a ‘unique’ project with ‘extremely low’ impurities’ and ‘exceptional low-cost and high yield’ downstream processing attributes with the potential to produce ‘high-quality’ graphite products into a diverse range of premium end-use markets.
“This is a transformational acquisition for the company”
Chase Mining Corporation Executive Chairman Leon Pretorius said “This is a transformational acquisition for the company, being able to earn the graphite rights (80%) to the McIntosh Graphite project known as one of the most advanced and largest graphite resources in Australia.
The McIntosh Project has more than 40,000m of graphite focused drilling conducted on the property and extensive metallurgical testwork providing a unique opportunity to advance a critical mineral project to development at a pivotal time where sovereign supply of graphite located in a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction is limited.”
The company has also seen a massive increase in its share price on the ASX, rising 41.666% to $0.017 as of 12:00pm AWST.
Chase Mining reports GTT Ventures satisfied its commitment to the company by placing the rights issue shortfall balance of $2,261,280, and Chase’s directors reaffirmed their commitment and opinion of the Green Critical Minerals acquisition by taking up their rights, totalling around $278,000 in the rights issue.
It also states Green Critical Minerals will soon be renamed and will trade under the ASX ticker GCM, and will have a cash balance around $5.1 million that will be used to accelerate exploration activities and progress feasibility studies for the development of the McIntosh Project.
Additionally, the company recognises that in order to realise the project’s economic value, an experienced and dedicated management team is required to drive the project through resource expansion and feasibility studies all the way through to offtake and production; and the Chase Mining reports it is in the advanced stages of a recruitment process to assemble a management team to deliver the company’s objectives.
Chase Mining also states a recent field trip to McIntosh has been ‘successful’ as the company obtained information identifying multiple outcropping graphite occurrences across 7 exploration targets over the tenure which further support the company’s exploration targeting model driven by electromagnetic highs identified in the historic VTEM survey.
Once these assays have been received, Chase Mining will be able to confirm the total graphitic carbon content of the outcrop samples and then commence petrographic analysis to determine flake size of the material found.
The company is also progressing an update of a pre-feasibility study for the project previously completed by Hexagon Energy Materials (ASX:HXG) in May 2017, and has appointed CPC Engineering for the update.
Chase Mining Corporation is an Australian-based mineral exploration and development company with projects in Queensland, Northern Territory and New South Wales.
Its assets include the North Barkly Project in the Northern Territory, the Torrington Tungsten and Topaz Projects in New South Wales, and the Georgetown and Cloncurry Projects in Queensland.
Images: iStock
