Australian mineral explorer and developer Green Critical Minerals (ASX:GCM) is continuing to explore the potential of its McIntosh Graphite Project in Western Australia through metallurgical testwork.
The company, which has a $13.81 million market capitalisation, says preliminary metallurgical testwork at the project’s Emperor deposit is ongoing on a 250kg composite sample taken from 2 historical core holes provided by the project’s previous owners. Green Critical holds the earn-in rights for an interest in the project of up to 80%.
Green Critical Minerals reports preliminary results from the first batch of testwork indicate that the flake size distribution used in the 2017 Prefeasibility Study (PFS) is different to the sample material sent by the company to SGS Lakefield (SGS).
As a result, Green Critical Minerals announces it will follow up with further metallurgical testwork based on its own core samples from its recently completed 2023 drilling campaign to better understand flake size distribution across the deposit.
The company notes SGS to date has only performed a single polishing stage followed by 3 stages of cleaner flotation to achieve about 51% concentrate grade.
Testwork is expected to progress, with the upgrading process using additional polishing and cleaner stages to achieve a 95% final concentrate grade. The company also notes completion of this work will give way for the start of the follow-up testwork.
Green Critical Minerals is an ASX-listed mineral explorer and developer working to build a low-carbon Australian mine-to-market graphite business.
The McIntosh project is located in Western Australia and currently holds the third-largest graphite resource in Australia.
Green Critical Minerals had $2.298 million cash at hand as of 30 June 2023, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Adam Drought at Mining.com.au
Images: Green Critical Minerals Ltd
