Green Critical Minerals have confirmed it holds the average flake size to make spherical graphite for battery anode material at four of six exploration targets at its McIntosh Graphite Project, standing as the third largest graphite resource in Australia.
Targets at Marlin, Marlin West, Threadfin and Cobia were all revealed from petrographic analysis showing an average flake size sitting between 75-150 micrometres, the desired starting point to produce the high value material.
The fine flake demand from a firing battery market is well known but would only serve to supplement and diversify the top end coarse flake found at the project’s cornerstone Emperor Deposit – holding the bulk of the McIntosh resource and ranking in the top quartile for flake size distribution globally, with 85 per cent holding the potential for nuclear purity and the very highest value graphite products.
GCM Chief Executive Mark Lynch-Staunton said the company was encouraged by the potential to serve both coarse flake and fine flake markets.
“This provides product diversity which ultimately de-risks selling into a single market,” he said.
“In addition, having discrete and separate fine flake and coarse flake deposits will allow unique mine planning and sequencing advantages that sets Mcintosh apart from other graphite peers.”
Next steps:
The company has a busy time ahead as it moves towards the market, with a maiden drill program for over 10,000 metres on track to fire up next month and verify its exploration targets while it begins a preliminary ore sorting study, metallurgical testwork campaign, battery anode qualification downstream scoping study and a re-equipped upstream pre-feasibility study.
