LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Natural resources investment company Armadale Capital announced an update on its 2017 exploration programme at its Mahenge Liandu Graphite Project in Tanzania on Monday.
The AIM-traded firm confirmed a drilling contract had been signed, and mobilisation was underway ahead of a 2,500m drilling programme due to commence at Mahenge Liandu.

It said the objective of the drilling programme was to increase both the quantum and confidence category of the maiden JORC resource estimate of 40.9Mt at 9.41% total graphitic content.

Field work was ramping up, and access roads had been improved to support the 2017 exploration campaign, the board reported.

Bulk sampling of mineralisation had also commenced to produce graphite concentrate for downstream test work, with the processing and analysis taking place in in Perth, Western Australia.

Concentrates were also set to be sent to potential offtake partners with preliminary discussions already underway.

"Our 2017 exploration programme has now commenced in earnest with the mobilisation of the drill rig and commencement of bulk sampling on site," said director Nick Johansen.

"Although delayed somewhat by an extended rainy season, I am confident that we remain on target to increase our total resource tonnes and also move a substantial portion of our maiden JORC resource into the higher confidence indicated category to enable a pre-feasibility study to commence before the end of the year."

In tandem with its drilling activities, Johansen said the test work would continue, including the production of samples of graphite concentrates for the expandable graphite market and the lithium ion battery market, together with the traditional graphite markets.

"Test work conducted to date has delivered highly positive results, with purity of above 99.95% being achieved for size fractions between 106 µm and 500µm, which are typically used for the production of spherical graphite.

"These consistently encouraging results underpin the project's ability to produce high quality graphite concentrates, which should be suitable for a number of commercial applications."

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