Tanzania: Investor Eyes More Graphite Production

Posted on : Thursday , 22nd January 2015

 KIBARAN Resources has developed a growth strategy for its Epanko Graphite Project in Tanzania that envisages a staged development that can produce up to 100,000 tonnes per annum of concentrate.

Production will commence at 40,000 tonnes annually with ramp up to 100,000 tonnes over two stages offering the company the ability to respond quickly to future increases in demand.

The first stage could be taken out in two to four years to increase production to 75,000 tonnes while the second stage in four to five years will increase production to 100,000 tonnes.

An internally funded five-year expansion plan indicates an NPV of 251 million at the current resource base at the 100,000 tonnes production rate.

A Feasibility Study is on schedule and within budget while Environmental Certification is in the final stage of the approval process. "The development of a 100,000tpa expansion strategy is an extremely exciting advance for Kibaran and allows for manageable step changes in production to meet anticipated growth in the market," Chairman John Park said.

"Whilst the company has always believed and has demonstrated its graphite is amongst the best quality in the world the Epanko project can now be considered competitive in terms of scale to some of the large deposits currently being explored in other countries.

"We are poised and ready to react to future demand increases and have the ability to act quickly given our lean structure and in-house expertise. "The progress we are making in terms of statutory permitting and the feasibility study is equally as pleasing; we remain diligently on track to deliver on our commitments in this regard."

The feasibility study being managed by GR Engineering Services (GRES) is progressing well and is on schedule and within budget. Work to date has focussed on finalising the plant site ROM pad tailings storage facility and access road alignment the key criteria being minimising earthworks and environmental impact.

Representatives of GRES and Knight Piesold completed their initial site visit in November and subsequent to that diamond drilling and test pits have been completed on the proposed plant and TSF sites and samples sent to the laboratory for geotechnical analysis.

The metallurgical test work program for the study has been finalised in conjunction with GRES and Independent Metallurgical Operations Pty Ltd (IMO) Australia's largest metallurgical services group and Kibaran's off-take and sales partners. Samples have arrived in Australia from Tanzania and work has commenced being undertaken by IMO in Perth.

Comminution network is mostly complete and sample characterisation has begun. The company received the formal feedback on 9th January this year from NEMC's Technical Audit Committee related to their site visit undertaken last quarter.

The ESIA has subsequently been updated to address points raised with appropriate mitigations and was resubmitted to NEMC on 16th January 2015.

Kibaran expects that NEMC will now be in the  position to recommend to the Ministry of Environment, that the Environmental Certificate for the Epanko Project be issued.