The Tanzanian Ministry of Energy and Minerals recently granted a 10-year mining license to Australian resource company Graphex Mining (ASX:GPX) for the Chilalo graphite project in south east Tanzania.
The mining license has been granted for a period of 10 years and covers an area of 10sq. km (the Shimba graphite deposit at Chilalo).
Phil Hoskins, Managing Director of Graphex, said: “Securing the mining license is a significant step towards our objective of commencing project development and commercial production at Chilalo.”
He added: “We continue to make progress with our project partners regarding offtake and finance for the development of Chilalo and the receipt of the mining license, combined with the expected near-term conclusion of their technical due diligence, will allow these negotiations to move to a more advanced stage.”
Chilalo Graphite Project
The Chilalo graphite project is located in south east Tanzania, within the Mozambique belt, which is well known for hosting some of the world’s highest grade and coarse flake graphite deposits.
Average annual production is expected to be 69,000t of graphite concentrate over 10 years.
Graphex indicates that the Shimba deposit has a total resource (indicated and inferred) of 25.1m t; however, after a recent drilling program, Graphex has identified a new mineralized zone 200–300 meters north of Shimba.
Accordingly, this will underpin an increase in the Shimba mineral resource estimate, which is expected to be announced in the near future, Graphex notes.
Hoskins commented: “We have still only scratched the surface on our tenements and I expect additional exploration to be carried out following the finalization of project offtake negotiations. Given the number of untested targets, Chilalo has the potential to host one of the world’s largest graphite resources.”
