ASX-listed mineral exploration and development company Green Critical Minerals (ASX:GCM) is preparing to launch a maiden drilling program at the McIntosh Graphite Project in Western Australia.
Following the maiden drilling program, Green Critical Minerals will complete a preliminary ore sorting study, a metallurgical testwork campaign, battery anode qualification testwork, a Scoping Study for a downstream processing facility, and will update the upstream Prefeasibility Study (PFS).
The maiden drill program, which is scheduled to begin in May 2023, follows a petrographic analysis on rock chip samples collected at the project in September 2022 that identified further battery anode potential.
This work confirmed 4 of the 6 exploration targets have an average flake size of between 75 micrometre (µm) and 150µm, which is the desired flake size starting point to make spherical graphite (SPG) for battery anode material.
Green Critical Minerals says the rock chip sampling program focused on areas of high electromagnetic (EM) response not previously investigated, drilled, or sampled. Out of the 65 samples collected, a representative selection of 18 were sent for petrographic analysis.
The company says the results are preliminary and are not indicative of overall trends, and notes further focused petrology work will need to be conducted to better understand the flake characteristics of the individual target areas following drilling.
Green Critical Minerals adds that properties such as crystallinity, purity, and flake size are typically more important than other mining metrics such as grade regarding graphite.
Commenting on the results, Green Critical Minerals Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mark Lynch-Staunton says: “GCM is encouraged by the potential to serve both the coarse flake and fine flake markets. This provides product diversity which ultimately de-risk selling into a single market.
In addition, having discrete and separate fine flake and coarse flake deposits will allow unique mine planning and sequencing advantages that sets McIntosh apart from other graphite peers.”
“having discrete and separate fine flake and coarse flake deposits will allow unique mine planning and sequencing advantages that sets McIntosh apart from other graphite peers”
Green Critical Minerals is an Australian mineral exploration and development company focused on its portfolio of projects across the country. These assets include the McIntosh Graphite Project in Western Australia, a 40% interest in privately owned base metals company Red Fox Resources, the North Barkley Rare Earths Project in the Northern Territory, and the Torrington Tungsten and Topaz Project in New South Wales.
The company also has the option to secure a 90% interest in the Hawkwood Nickel-Copper-Cobalt-Gold-PGE project in Queensland currently held in a joint venture with private company Auburn Resources.
Images: Green Critical Minerals Ltd
