no 1 for graphite - eyre peninsula, sa

No 1 for graphite

May 2, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

THERE is little doubt Eyre Peninsula has become the number one graphite province in Australia, according to Lincoln Minerals.

Addressing the second day of the Paydirt 2013 South Australian Resources and Energy Investment Conference at the Adelaide Convention Centre yesterday, Lincoln's managing director Dr John Parker said the emerging graphite industry on Eyre Peninsula should have every confidence of going from strength to strength with the potential for numerous projects to move from possibility to probability.

"With the round of fresh results coming this year from the three or four graphite focused explorers on the peninsula, it is now reasonable to expect that there are going to be several world class graphite deposits identified in the region," Dr Parker said.

Dr Parker said there was an exploration target of between 7 and 20 million tonnes of graphite at Lincoln's wholly-owned Kookaburra Gully project (near Koppio) alone, and there were other significant electromagnetic anomalies in the nearby vicinity.

"Many of the emerging targets are high grade graphite, and that positions Eyre Peninsula through deposits such as Kookaburra Gully in the top 10 graphite resources globally."

Lincoln has defined an indicated and inferred resource of 2.25 million tonnes at Kookaburra Gully, has completed scoping studies across the project, and is pursuing the establishment of a $2 million pilot plant on site by early next year to provide processed graphite samples for sampling and testing by potential international customers.

It will be undertaking further drilling later in 2013 on the Kookaburra Gully Extended project with the aim of delivering a maiden resource, with similar work on the historic Koppio graphite mine near Kookaburra Gully to update by early 2014 the historic resource estimate of 57,000 tonnes of contained graphite.

The scoping study estimated a processing plant could be constructed and commissioned on site at Kookaburra Gully at a capital cost of around $38 million.

http://www.portlincolntimes.com.au/story/1470822/no-1-for-graphite/?cs=1500