Graphite One (GPH: TSXV; US-OTC: GPHOF) has reported high-grade results from its 2021 drill program at the Graphite Creek project in Alaska as it looks to complete a prefeasibility study towards the end of July.
Highlights from the 2,150 metres of drilling include 5.8 metres grading 35.78% graphitic carbon starting from 61.6 metres in hole 21GC0624800; and 16 metres grading 6.9% graphitic carbon starting from 70.2 metres in hole 21GC0604750.
Several other holes that were drilled to upgrade inferred resources to the measured and indicated categories returned grades greater than 10%.
“Our 2021 drill results… should provide the opportunity to increase the resource and reserve estimates for the PFS,” said Anthony Huston, CEO of Graphite One, in a press release. “With our planned mine area of approximately 1 km of the overall 16 km anomaly, our deposit remains open downdip and along strike to the east and west of the known resource.”
Located in the Kigluaik Mountains, about 60 km north of Nome, the project has measured and indicated mineral resources of 11 million tonnes grading 7.8% graphitic carbon for 850,534 contained tonnes of graphite. Inferred resources stand at 91.9 million tonnes grading 8% carbon as graphite for 7.3 million tonnes. The resource estimate used a cut-off grade of 5% graphite.
Graphite One’s Graphite Creek project on Alaska’s Seward Peninsula. Credit: Graphite One
In March, the U.S. Geological Survey cited the company’s resource in Alaska as the largest known graphite deposit in the country, which hasn’t produced graphite since the 1950s and currently imports all of its natural graphite.
In a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) from 2017, preproduction capital costs were estimated to total US$363 million, included construction of both a processing plant and a manufacturing plant.
The PEA envisioned an open pit mine life of 40 years, with the processing plant producing 60,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate annually once full production is reached. The manufacturing plant is expected to convert the concentrate into 41,850 tonnes per year of coated spherical graphite for use in lithium-ion batteries.
The company is currently developing an integrated project that aims to mine and process graphite at its Graphite Creek property and build an advanced graphite material and battery anode manufacturing plant in Washington State.
In April, the company signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with battery materials recycler Lab 4 to build a recycling facility adjacent to the manufacturing plant, for end-of-life electric vehicle and lithium-ion batteries in the coastal state.
At press time in Toronto, Graphite One was trading at $1.63 per share, up 33¢ or 25%, within a 52-week trading range of 89¢ and $2.54. The company has 86.1 million common shares outstanding.
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