The 20.9Mt resource grades 4.5% total graphitic carbon for 940,500 tonnes of battery relevant contained graphite, up from the 17.2Mt at 4.63% TCG for 797,200t identified in the prior estimate, released in January 2016.
Indicated resources were 57% higher across the McIntosh project, with Hexagon CEO Tony Cormack saying the upgrade and the results of a recent electromagnetic survey would put Hexagon on course to “become a global flake graphite producer of significance”..
“This resource upgrade, along with the upcoming revision to the exploration target estimate, will demonstrate the sheer size of the McIntosh project combined with the quality of the flake,” he said.
Cormack said the boost came after completion of drilling campaigns of 20,195m of reverse circulation and 6557m of diamond drilling last year, focusing on the Emperor and Wahoo deposits, which the group aims to convert into mineable ore reserves.
“The Emperor and Wahoo deposits will provide the bulk of the tonnes for the initial stage of mining at McIntosh and underpin the prefeasibility study for the project,” he said.
“Once the company is generating revenue from the project, exploration and development efforts will focus on significantly expanding the resource base to support many decades of mining at McIntosh.”
Hexagon reported a 30% increase in total contained graphite for the Emperor deposit, to 11.4Mt grading at 4.4%, to 502,000t of contained graphite, while total indicated resources more than doubled to 300,000t from 145,250t the year before.
The neighbouring Wahoo deposit saw its TCG tonnes increase 67% to 67,500t from 40,550t in 2016, with 44,500t TGC of this being an indicated resource.
The upgrade comes after Hexagon sold its South Korean graphite subsidiary Opirus Minerals to unlisted Australian company Battery Mineral Resources, securing $A1 million in cash and 2 million shares, which was a larger upfront cash component than the previous structure.
Shares in Hexagon were up 0.5c or 2.3% to 22.5c in morning trade, valuing the company at $55.3 million.
