has underlined the unique marketing versatility of its graphite resources on the Balama North and Ancuabe projects in Mozambique with new testwork confirming large particle sizes and high recovery rates.
Recent metallurgical testing has indicated the substantial presence of large graphite particle sizes at Balama’s Nicanda Hill deposit, with 53% of the discrete mass graphite particles larger than 150 micrometres.
The sampled material was found to be readily liberated by crushing, grinding, rougher and cleaner flotation, with no additional regrind required. Concentrate grade of 96.1% total graphitic carbon were achieved at a recovery of 97.4%.
Optimisation of the metallurgy at Nicanda Hill is expected to result in improved economics for Balama, with higher quality products able to demand a stronger market price as well as high purity levels allowing for more operational efficiencies.
Triton is reviewing options to determine whether the graphite concentrate from the sampled zone at Nicanda Hill can be further upgraded through flotation.
The company is aiming to obtain similar purity levels to those recently achieved with Nicanda Hill (in excess of 99%TGC) without the use of acid leaching.
Ancuabe testwork
Closer to the coast and the port city of Pemba, Balama’s sister project Ancuabe also tested a trial production cycle on the back of high customer demand.
The lab work in Johannesburg confirmed an average grade of 98.2%TGC for the material and a metallurgical recovery rate of 97%.
During the program, graphite concentrates were produced in excess of 98%TGC, whilst still preserving the majority of graphite flake sizes. The graphite flakes were obtained through the standard methods of crushing, grinding, rougher and cleaner flotation.
Triton found more than 85% of the graphite particle sizes were larger than 150 micrometres and the majority were in excess of 300 micrometres.
These exceptional results demonstrate the high quality of the Ancuabe graphite and concentrate samples are currently being despatched to several parties across the globe that have expressed interest in testing the material.
Reconnaissance mapping and sampling undertaken at Ancuabe during the year has identified a substantial amount of graphitic outcropping in several locations, over a distance of approximately 3.5 kilometres.
Visual inspections of the rock samples taken from the project appear to show a high proportion of large, jumbo and super-jumbo graphite flake, which could be readily separate on the outer surface of the rock chip samples.
Production milestone
Tirton recently demonstrated the commercial viability of Nicanda Hill graphite with successful commercial-scale production trial at the Yichang Xinheng Graphite Co Ltd (YXGC) factory.
This confirmed the feasibility of producing high-strength composite graphite materials and fire resistant polystyrene foam using the company’s Triton Mozambique Graphite (TMG), which readily liberates to very high purities through traditional flotation methods.
This work followed the signing earlier this year of a 20-year offtake deal with YXGC worth US$2 billion (A$2.8 billion) and joint ventures for factories in China and Mozambique to produce enhanced graphite products.
TMG is expandable, meaning it has the ability to increase up to 1,500 times in volume after treatment with dilute acid and heating.
Currently, China produces approximately 16,000 different types of expandable graphite products. The main markets for expandable graphite include graphite foils, sheets, flame retardants, thermal conductivity additives, electrical conductivity additives, sealing materials in critical applications of high pressure environments.
Due to the thermal and fire retardant properties of graphite the Chinese Government is reportedly planning to mandate that all building insulation use expanded polystyrene in construction of new buildings that must contain 10-15% of expanded graphite.
Triton intends establishing TMG as a new global graphite-industry benchmark, by aiming to offer the world’s lowest cost and most diversified graphite product range and becoming a long term reliable supplier.
Analysis
The latest metallurgical results demonstrate the versatility of Nicanda Hill and Ancuabe to deliver the most diverse range of graphite flake sizes while justifying the progression to a comprehensive metallurgical testwork program and bulk concentrate production run.
This in turn supports project advancement that will allow Triton to produce a wide range of TMG products for its customers and improved potential regarding downstream economics.
It is expected that confirmation of the large and jumbo size fractions of high grade graphite flakes recovered from flotation will improve the economic returns from Balama. This is because the larger size flakes will raise the average basket sale price for the graphite concentrate sold from Nicanda Hill.
Optimization of the metallurgical process is expected to further enhance the quality of the final product concentrate.
The metallurgical progress also reinforces recent broker analysis finding Triton shares to be worth more than three times their current value.
The recent production success in Asia also underscores the high quality of TMG products, which are critical in many niche end-use segments in the broader graphite sector.
The stronger connection to Asian partners evidenced by the successful product trials bodes well for future market penetration of Nicanda Hill material.
TMG is now in a unique position to supply a broad and diverse market, having produced a full range of high grade flake graphite concentrates, graphite composite material, graphite sheets and foils, spherical graphite and graphene.
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