Kingsland Minerals (ASX:KNG) has released a scoping study the group says validates the Leliyn Graphite Project in the Northern Territory as one that can be a “globally competitive” producer.
The company intended to test the viability of further developing both the open pit mine and processing plant, employing GR Engineering Services to conduct the study.
The Leliyn processing plant, which hosts a 1.5 million tonnes capacity per year, returned an initial capital cost of $343 million.
Kingsland expects Leliyn to produce around 662,000 tonnes of recovered graphite across a 6.9 year processing period, returning an average of around 95,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate produced each year.
The study averaged an operating cash cost of $651 per tonne of graphite concentrate.
Across the estimated project life of 8.9 years, the study returned an open pit mining strip ratio of 0.8 waste per every ore.
Managing Director Richard Maddocks says the Scoping Study has returned strong results that promotes an “excellent” outlook for the Leliyn Project.
“Importantly, the C1 or cash operating cost is forecast to be just US$423 per tonne of concentrate produced, which is very competitive with current operations worldwide,” Maddocks says.
“This result is even more promising given that we only had a limited amount of mineralisation to utilise for the study.
“With more drilling and increased indicated resources, we are confident that we can build on this result and establish a long-life, profitable graphite concentrate operation.”
Kingsland Minerals is an Australian explorer focused on developing its assets in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: Kingsland Minerals
