(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors)
() has engaged a complete team of technical experts to assist with the completion of the Definitive Feasibility Study for the Nicanda Hill graphite project in Mozambique.
This gives the company confidence to complete the DFS by the end of 2015 and progress the project towards graphite production.
Key consultants engaged include DRA Global ORElogy Golder Associates Jem-Met Legacy Project Solutions Independent Metallurgical Operations World Industrial Minerals (Denver) and Oriental Link Holdings.
Meanwhile initial sampling at the Ancuabe Project has also returned encouraging results with 85% of the graphite flakes liberated exceeding 212μm.
Graphite head grades were up to 23% total graphitic carbon (TGC) while further metallurgical (flotation) work is underway on a 100 kilogram sample.
“Triton is proud to announce that it has now engaged and secured a comprehensive world renowned experienced and professional team of consultants to work with advise and assist the company with the rapid development of Nicanda Hill towards graphite production” managing director Brad Boyle.
“Further Triton is extremely pleased to announce that initial exploration sampling from Ancuabe has produced encouraging results and confirms the substantial percentage of large and jumbo flake graphite material.
“The concurrent advancement of the Ancuabe Project is expected to provide Triton with the ability to provide greater flexibility in the range of graphite products that can be supplied from its consolidated Mozambique projects for a wide range of clients this would place Triton in an extremely unique and advantageous position in comparison to its peers.”
The company is actively advancing discussions with current and new potential strategic partners from Europe Japan China and North.
It is also in the process of revising the Nicanda Hill resource model to provide a more accurate basis for the DFS.
The company is reviewing a number of development options to incorporate the Ancuabe Project into the Nicanda Hill operations to provide a greater commercial flexibility by providing a varied range of high-purity graphite flake sizes for end users.
Engagement of Key Consultants
The engagement of the consultants to assist with the DFS adds to the recent engagement of Coastal and Environmental Services (Pty) Ltd (CES) to complete the Environmental Management and Impact Assessment at Nicanda Hill.
Bringing together such an experienced and capable team of experts gives the company confidence that it can build on its past successes and continue with the rapid development of the Nicanda Hill resource towards graphite production.
DRA Global: Lead Manager of Definitive Feasibility Study
DRA Global (DRA) has been engaged by Triton as lead study manager of the Nicanda Hill Graphite Project and will commence with a number of options studies.
The company will then endeavour to seamlessly transition from the Pre-feasibility Study (PFS) to DFS level at the completion of the pilot plant phase.
The options studies and PFS will form the basis for the direction of the comprehensive DFS.
Options include the potential incorporation of vanadium and other bi-products and material from the Ancuabe Project.
The DFS comprises a number of components including engineering and mineral process plant design transportation and logistics resource modelling reserve classifications pit design tailings storage facility design environmental and social impact marketing and product distribution and financial modelling.
DRA is an international multi-disciplinary organisation specialising in the project management of mining infrastructure and mineral process plant design and construction.
As one of the largest project management enterprises in Africa DRA has established a long and successful history of project development in Africa’s mining industry.
ORElogy: Reserve Classification and Open Pit Mine Planning
As DRA Global’s strategic partner ORElogy has also been engaged by the Company via DRA to complete the Reserve Classifications at Nicanda Hill.
Perth-based ORElogy will also complete the design for the proposed open pit the Life of Mine schedule and all associated mine planning for the project.
Golder Associates: Tailings Storage Facility Design
Triton has engaged the Golder Associates (Golder) to complete the Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) design for the DFS at Nicanda Hill.
Globally Golder have designed and built TSF’s for a wide variety of commodities including graphite gold uranium base metals coal oil sands oil shales red mud fly ash and clays.
Damien Kenworthy Client Development Manager for Golder Associates stated:
“We are looking forward to working with on this exciting project.
“We understand that Nicanda Hill is a world class graphite deposit with funding progressing in its exploration activities and studies.
“To support the completion of the Nicanda Hill graphite project in Mozambique Golder can deliver engineering and implementation of virtually all types of tailings storage solutions including dewatering inside the plant; pump and pipeline transportation system tailings storage and water return systems.”
JEM-MET: Owner’s Team DFS Supervision
Australian-based mining project management consultancy Jem-Met has been engaged by the Company to assist with the overall supervision of the DFS process on behalf of Triton to ensure the study is completed on time and on budget.
Jem-Met specialises in representing the client during the feasibility stages and managing interaction between appointed specialists to guarantee shareholder capital is utilised correctly.
Legacy Project Solutions: Owner’s Team DFS additional support
Legacy Project Solutions has been engaged to provide additional support to the owner’s team during the DFS and will oversee the various consultants in South Africa and Mozambique during the study period.
The South African-based project management services provider and its team of cross-disciplinary specialist consultants will assist during pre-feasibility and feasibility studies.
Independent Metallurgical Operations: Graphite Specifications
Independent Metallurgical Operations Pty Ltd (IMO) has been retained by the company to undertake a detailed analysis and review of the physical characteristics and industry specifications applicable to Nicanda Hill graphite concentrate.
This work will enable Triton to better understand the range of applications for Nicanda Hill graphite enabling Triton to refine and better cater for potential client’s needs.
IMO based in Perth Western Australia has been providing metallurgical operations and metallurgy consulting services to the Australian and global mining industry since 1998.
World Industrial Minerals: North American Graphite Market
World Industrial Minerals (Denver) (WIM) has been engaged to assist Triton with market penetration and strategic partnership development in the North American region.
WIM is an international consulting firm that specialises in the evaluation of industrial precious base and strategic mineral projects throughout the world.
Utilising a network of domestic and international associates WIM is capable of completing all evaluation tasks from initial grassroots geological exploration through advanced feasibility studies including marketing and transportation.
Oriental Link Holdings: Asian Graphite Market
Triton has also retained Oriental Link Holdings Pty Ltd (OLH) to assist with market penetration and strategic partnership development in the Asian region.
OLH is based in Perth Western Australia and has offices in Singapore Hong Kong and China.
Their professional team of experts are actively engaged in and are reviewing the resource market for changes and deliver customised consultancy towards the needs of their customers. OLH have considerable experience with graphite and graphite companies in the Australasia region.
Ancuabe
Preliminary mineralogical test work on the Ancuabe sample by Mintek (Johannesburg) confirms the strong presence of jumbo flake graphite in excess of 3mm being identified in the crusher discharge.
Of these 85% of the graphite flakes are greater than 212μm (very large) in size while about 60% of the flakes recovered from the crusher discharge ranges between 600μm and 3300μm (jumbo flakes).
This is considered to be an extremely positive result from a first crush with potentially sound economic implications.
Adding to the interest the majority of the graphite flakes liberate cleanly from the surrounding gangue material without the need for additional processing.
If the company is able to liberate a large portion of the graphite flakes by crushing this would significantly reduce the time and cost of extraction whilst managing to preserve the large flake sizes.
The preliminary assay results on the sample has found a head grade of up to 22.8% TGC in the flake size range between 600μm and 800μm whilst the overall graphite grades across the full range of graphite flake sizes still averaged 16.2% TGC which are strong indicators of the high quality nature of the Ancuabe Project.
A more complete flotation testing program is being undertaken at the Mintek Laboratories on the 100 kilogram sample to refine the optimisation process for the graphite flake recovery and to determine the final graphite purity.
Analysis
The appointment of a comprehensive team of consultants will support as it moves to complete the DFS at Nicanda Hill before the end of 2015.
In addition while the rapid development of Nicanda Hill towards production remains the company’s primary focus the latest exploration results from Ancuabe confirms its high quality.
Should Triton demonstrate economic volumes of large and jumbo flake graphite at Ancuabe it could complement the company’s targeted high-volume low-cost production from Nicanda Hill and provide the potential to produce the large volumes of high grade graphite in the full range of flake sizes and thereby accommodating for a wider range of end-user requirements.
Triton recently attracted A$20 million in project financing from the Hong Kong based Long State Investments to continue the rapid development of the Nicanda Hill graphite and vanadium deposit.
Nicanda Hill contains the world’s largest known graphite and vanadium resource. It hosts multiple high grade graphite zones and contains good quality medium and coarse flake graphite.
Recently Triton delivered some impressive metallurgical results from Nicanda Hill with upgrades of up to 99.9%C achieved in laboratory test work.
Not to be forgotten are the vanadium concentrate with grades up to 0.74% V2O5 and a zinc concentrate assaying 7% produced from the graphite tail through simple flotation process.
Significant price catalysts are ahead for Triton including:
- Further results from reconnaissance mapping at Ancuabe;
- Advancing discussions with potential offtake partners for Nicanda Hill;
- Completing the Nicanda Hill Environmental Study; and
- Completing the Nicanda Hill Definitive Feasibility Study by the end of 2015.
Proactive Investors Australia is the market leader in producing news articles and research reports on ASX emerging companies with distribution in Australia UK North America and Hong Kong / China.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.