Mozambi Resource (MOZ), a junior Australian graphite explorer operating in East Africa, has announced its maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) compliant resource of 179 million tonnes at its Namangale graphite project in Tanzania.
Yesterday’s pre-market announcement helped MOZ shares to gain 22 percent at the time of writing. The project, which graded at 5.1 percent graphitic carbon, is considered to host the largest graphite resource in Tanzania.
The Inferred JORC estimate was carried out by ‘ROM Resources’ and compiled by Mark Biggs, a Competent Person and Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, a statement by Mozambi seen by The Guardian stated in part.
JORC is the Australasian code for reporting of exploration results, mineral resources and ore reserves. JORC Code is a professional code of practice that sets minimum standards for public reporting of minerals exploration results, mineral Resources and ore reserves.The estimate was calculated using 82 reverse circulation holes and nine diamond holes with a maximum depth of 100m with mineralisation starting near surface. MOZ’s Namangale prospect is now the largest reported JORC graphite project in Tanzania and one of the largest coarse flake projects in the world.
“The results have been outstanding in every respect. We now have a very significant maiden Jorc resource, coupled with excellent coarse flake-size graphite, which has been drilled from a very shallow depth,” said Mozambi chairperson Stephen Hunt.
“This, together with the fantastic infrastructure goes a long way to ensuring the success of Namangale as a genuine graphite project. We are all very excited by these results and it bodes extremely well for the future development of the company.”
The Resource classification criteria is based on drill spacing, geological mapping, trenches and pitting results, which together used to confirm the grade and geological continuity of the graphite schist mineralisation.
MOZ’s Tanzania operations are located close to the deep-water port of Mtwara, 140km from the Namangale Prospect.
Sealed roads and high-voltage are available across its prospects, connecting MOZ to export routes internationally. Mtwara Port has a capacity of 400,000 metric tonnes per annum and could handle up to 750,000 metric tonnes per annum with the same number of berths if additional equipment is put in place for handling containerised traffic. The port is currently heavily underutilised, with approximately 34 percent of its total capacity currently in use.
The official JORC certification means MOZ has pipped Magnis Resources to having the largest graphite resource in Tanzania, albeit at a much earlier stage of development.
MNS currently has a JORC Resource of 156Mt at 5.2 percent TGC with a current market valuation of A$134 million. MOZ on the other hand, now as an Inferred JORC Resource of 179Mt, currently capped at $26.3 million.
Announcing the news to the market earlier yesterday, MOZ reports that its Namangale Project has now become its prime focus for future exploration activity.
The Namangale Prospect is a shallow deposit with all drilling limited to 100m maximum depth. MOZ also reports that all Deposits remain open along strike and at depth and the project hosts multiple untested targets identified but not yet drill tested.
Furthermore, “exceptional metallurgical results show very high proportion of Super Jumbo 500+ Microns and Jumbo 300+ Microns flake sizes”. Metallurgical tests conducted as part of exploration activity have confirmed that Namangale’s “graphite is easily liberated from the host rock”.
Having obtained a JORC compliant resource, MOZ says the company “is now reviewing requests from potential off-take partners and end-users” with product samples being sent out. Hinting at potential future off-take deals, MOZ says that “a number of these requests have now been received and will be carefully reviewed by the Board”.
Assay results for the first three diamond core composites samples have been returned confirming excellent proportions of +300μm and + 600μm size fractions. For the three composites between 76 percent and 85 percent of the graphite was in the +300μm size fractions.
Mozambi is now focused on proving up the potential of the project to produce high quality Jumbo and Super Jumbo flake graphite, which continues to attract premium pricing and very strong customer demand.
MOZ’s maiden JORC resource is currently in the Inferred Category but MOZ plans to upgrade the deposit to the Indicated and Measured categories later this year. MOZ is now focused on progressing Namangale and says it’s in discussions with a number of specialist companies with regards to initiating a Pre¬feasibility study (PFS) on the Namangale Prospect “in the first quarter of 2016”.
Namangale is rapidly emerging as a potential world class graphite deposit, rivalling larger explorers such as Magnis, Kibaran and IMX Resources who are also ASX-listed and operating in Tanzania.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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