Sovereign ships bulk samples from world’s largest rutile and second-largest flake graphite project for production testing

30t of samples from Kasiya have been sent for testing in South Africa
Sovereign and Rio Tinto have designed the test work program to be conducted
Rio Tinto is a strategic investor in Sovereign with a 15% stake that could increase

Special Report: Backed by Rio Tinto, Sovereign Metals has delivered 30t of bulk ore samples from its Kasiya project in Malawi – representative of the first 10 years of production – to engineering consultant Paterson & Cooke (P&C) in South Africa for test work.

Sovereign Metals’ (ASX:SVM) Kasiya project is already the biggest natural rutile deposit and second-largest flake graphite deposit in the world, with a resource of 1.8Bt @ 1% rutile and 1.4% graphite.

Last year’s pre-feasibility study (PFS) pegged a run rate of 222,000tpa of rutile and 244,000tpa of natural graphite over a 25-year mine life.

SVM is backed by mining giant Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) which already has a 15% stake in the company with an option to increase.

Ore shipped for testing

A spiral drilling program has extracted, despatched and delivered 30t of ore from the Kasiya rutile-graphite project in Malawi to South Africa’s Paterson & Cooke – a leading engineering consultant in the mining sector.

The samples are representative of ore expected to be mined in the first 10 years of production and will be used for advanced bulk laboratory scale test work to optimise technical elements of the previously announced Kasiya PFS.

P&C will put the ore through a pipe loop facility to test specific parameters related to the mining, transportation and handling of Kasiya ore.

Graphite, Rutile, Flake, South, Africa, Shipped, Tesing, Bulk, ASX, SVM — P&C’s pipe loop facility in South Africa where ore samples from Kasiya will be tested. Pic: Supplied (SVM)

“I must commend our geology and logistics teams who, in a very short space of time, successfully extracted and delivered this large representative sample from Kasiya to Paterson & Cooke, representing a significant step in our ongoing project delivery,” SVM managing director Frank Eager says.

“Importantly, it also demonstrates the effectiveness of the day-to-day technical involvement of our strategic investor, Rio Tinto, in assisting Sovereign with the Kasiya project optimisation and bringing this Tier 1 project closer to development.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Sovereign Metals, 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.