Mineral sands miner Mineral Commodities Ltd (ASX: MRC) has announced the unearthing of high grades of graphite from its recent expansion drilling program at its Munglinup Graphite Project.
The company reported that the latest Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program has hit grades of up to 49.3% total graphitic carbon (TGC) from 54m.
MRC noted that the high grade assay results from infill and step out drilling at Munglinup confirms the continuity of mineralization. This is expected to positively impact DFS with potential for significant upside to Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve.
MRC reported that additional infill drilling program has been scheduled for the second half of 2019.
RC Drilling at Munglinup Graphite Project
The Munglinup Graphite Project is located 105km west of Esperance, 85km east of Ravensthorpe and 4km north of the town of Munglinup in the South Coast region of Western Australia.
Five areas/prospects of graphite mineralisation have been identified, Halberts Main Zone, White’s, McCarthy’s, Harris and Halberts South Zone
The company announced that its recent expansion drilling program results confirm continuity of mineralisation along strike of Halberts South and Whites / McCarthy West zones in both quantum and grade.
Highly Positive Results
Some of stand out results from the RC drilling include:
- 7m at 17.2% TGC from 48m downhole, including 3m at 22.4% TGC from 51m downhole;
- 8m at 20.0% TGC from 70m downhole, including 4m at 28.5% TGC from 73m downhole;
- 9m at 19.9% TGC from 20m downhole, including 7m at 22.6% TGC from 21m and 1m at 30.9% TGC from 25m downhole;
- 9m at 17.2% TGC from 15m downhole, including 4m at 22.4% TGC from 18m downhole;
- 4m at 19.2% TGC from 33m downhole, including 1m at 30.3% TGC from 34m downhole;
- 4m at 17.0% TGC from 52m downhole, including 1m at 49.3% TGC from 54m downhole;
- 8m at 14.8% TGC from 44m downhole, including 3m at 27.8% TGC from 46m and 1m at 40.7% TGC from 48m downhole; and
- 5m at 21.5% TGC from 36m downhole, including 3m at 28.1% TGC from 37m downhole and 2m at 30.6% TGC from 38m downhole
Results to Impact DFS
The company announced its plan to use the results to optimise the proposed mining plan as part of the Company’s Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS). This is expected to result in a new pit design which the Company anticipates will improve project economics and the life of mine.
To accommodate the changes, the company reported that the DFS is now scheduled to be delivered by the end of May 2019.
The company also reported that the additional geological and assay information will be included in a geological resource model update currently underway.
What’s Next?
MRC had announced that they plan to schedule additional drilling to further test the extensions of high grade mineralisation along strike at Whites and Halberts South.
Executive Chairman Mark Caruso said, “These high-grade drilling results further confirm MRC’s belief that the mineralisation at Munglinup is world class and that the Mineral Resource and subsequent Ore Reserve will continue to grow.
The results will be incorporated into an updated Resource Model, pit design and mine schedule for inclusion in the DFS to fully capture the value of these results in the project economics”.
