BlackEarth’s Razafy NW is all about high-grade graphite goodness

BlackEarth’s exploration has delivered a high-grade resource at the Razafy Northwest deposit that increases the Total Indicated graphite inventory at Maniry by 32%.

This is a big deal. Not only does the new Indicated resource increase the company’s confidence in what it has at the project in southern Madagascar, the near surface inferred and indicated resource of 2.9 million tonnes at 9.82% total graphitic content also promises to add significant value to its economics.

Further increases to BlackEarth Minerals’ (ASX:BEM) overall inventory of defined high-grade graphite could increase further as Razafy NW remains open along strike and down dip.

As if that wasn’t enough, the company has also found evidence of an even higher-grade core with +12% TGC in both the East and West lenses that will unsurprisingly be the focus of its exploration activities in 2022.

“The success at Maniry of discovering and subsequently defining a high-grade resource is testament to the skills and experience our team has in Madagascar,” managing director Tom Revy said.

“This additional discovery at Razafy NW of high-grade resources near surface has the potential to materially enhance the project economics and significantly increase the project’s life, and will be further investigated as part of the ongoing DFS.

“These results are exciting outcomes for the company and we look forward to updating the market with additional positive results in the short term.”

An update to the existing scoping study is now underway to outline the impact of the new resource on the overall economics of the Maniry project.

blackearth minerals — Maniry Graphite Project Area with Razafy NW at the top. Pic: Supplied

Razafy Northwest

The Razafy NW resource is the culmination of the company’s preliminary diamond drilling exploration program to identify shallow high-grade zones that was completed earlier this year.

Most of this resource (1.9Mt at 9.6% TGC) has been classified as higher confidence indicated resources that possess sufficient information on geology and grade continuity to support mine planning.

Overall resources at Maniry now stand at 9.9Mt at 7.7% TGC, or 758,000t of contained graphite, at the indicated level, and a further inferred resource of 13.2Mt at 6.4% TGC, or 841,000t of contained graphite.

This is in itself just a small part of the broader 3km by 7km Maniry domain, which BlackEarth has outlined an Exploration Target of between 260Mt to 380Mt grading 6% to 8% TGC.

This article was developed in collaboration with BlackEarth Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.