HIGHLIGHTS
- Graphite Exploration Target of 158 – 264 Mt @ 7 – 12 % TGC
- Significant graphite exploration target defined at the Sugarloaf Prospect on the Eyre Peninsula
- Previously identified as microcrystalline graphite, iTech believes it has suitable characteristics to be used in the anodes of lithium-ion batteries
- Potential to significantly boost the resources of the Campoona Spherical Graphite Project
- Specialist battery materials consultants, ANZAPLAN, have been engaged to undertake a robust metallurgical test work program to determine if Sugarloaf graphite can be processed for use in the anodes of lithium-ion batteries
"With positive metallurgical results, the Sugarloaf Graphite Exploration Target has the potential to add significant resources to the Campoona Graphite Project. Having been previously overlooked in the past due to its fine flake size, iTech believes it has potential as a source of graphite for the anodes of lithium-ion batteries in which fine flake size is a desirable characteristic"
DETAILS
iTech Minerals (ASX:ITM) is pleased to release an Exploration Target of 158 – 264 Mt @ 7 – 12 % TGC for the Sugarloaf Graphite Prospect, near Cleve on the Central Eyre Peninsula. The target has been compiled from over 33 historic drill holes and a detailed airborne electromagnetic survey that has been used to predict the continuity of graphite mineralisation.
Figure 2. Plan view of the Exploration Target at the Sugarloaf Graphite Prospect – Eyre Peninsula, South Australia
Sugarloaf Graphite Prospect
The Sugarloaf Graphite Prospect is located approximately 30 km north-west of Cleve on the central Eyre Peninsula and is directly adjacent to iTech’s proposed graphite processing plant for the Campoona Spherical Graphite Project. The graphite at this location occurs within the Paleoproterozoic Hutchison Group Metasediments and is likely to have formed from organic rich stratigraphic horizons metamorphosed during regional upper greenschist to lower amphibolite facies metamorphism during the Kimban Orogeny. The graphite rich horizon forms a largely flat lying, shallow anticlinal structure as interpreted from drilling and detailed airborne and ground-based electromagnetics.
Exploration Target calculation and assumptions
Tonnes
The Exploration Target for the Sugarloaf Prospect is reported as a range of
158 Mt – 264 Mt at a grade of 7 – 12% TGC
When combined, all drilling results confirm that the graphitic-rich body consists of two broadly flat lying zones of graphitic schist that, in aggregate, average 50m in true width, varying in depth from 0m (surface) to 50m below surface. Drilling results extend over a strike length of 4 km. The host rock is a muscovite bearing quartz-rich metasiltstone. Two airborne electromagnetic surveys have been flown over the Sugarloaf Exploration Target resulting in 10 east-west conductivity depth image sections that were used to predict the subsurface extent of graphite mineralisation. Confirmation of the conductivity anomaly being caused by graphite mineralisation is confirmed by drilling. A three-dimensional model was generated from the cross sections to define the dimensions of the Exploration Target. No density measurements have been conducted at this time but given the dominant quartz and muscovite composition it is reasonable to ascribe a very conservative density of 1.5 sg units. The depth of oxidation in the area is approximately 80m vertically below surface corresponding with the current water table.
Grade
The Sugarloaf Exploration Target area has up to two vertically stacked graphite domains identified from down-hole drill intersections with a combined average thickness of 50 m determined from 13 drill holes over 2.5 km. The weighted arithmetic average of all drill intervals of graphitic schist (sample size n=694) is 9.4% Total Carbon. Intervals chosen for the analysis had to have visible graphite however no lower grade cut-off was used. In view of no lower cut-off grade being applied it is therefore reasonable to assume that the likely grade will be between 7 – 12% Total Graphitic Carbon.
A total of 33 holes were compiled from historical exploration reports and the exploration database inherited from Archer Materials (ASX: AXE or Archer) during the acquisition of the tenements. These holes were selected as they were the only ones from the broader sample set that had total graphite carbon analyses (TGC).
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