Jumbo Flake Graphite at Nicanda Hill
Perth, Aug 28, 2015 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Triton Minerals Limited (
ASX:TON) (Triton or Company) is pleased to provide an update on recent activities on Triton's Mozambique graphite projects.
HIGHLIGHTS
NICANDA HILL
- New jumbo flake graphite zone (P66) identified
- Confirms presence of visible jumbo flake graphite (>2,000µ)
- TMG product range increased
ANCUABE
- Access to main target areas now complete
- Drill program advancing well
- More graphitic outcropping with jumbo flake graphite identified
Triton's Managing Director & CEO Brad Boyle said: "The discovery of jumbo flake graphite at Nicanda Hill is an exceptional outcome for Triton and further demonstrates the world class nature of the Nicanda Hill deposit and the likelihood that it will become the premier graphite deposit in Mozambique.
Triton is now targeting to become the only graphite company in Mozambique, and possibly the world, with two market leading graphite projects, that together can provide high volume and quality graphite concentrates and products, which includes greater than 600 micron jumbo flake graphite, to our existing off take partners and additionally to a global range of end users.
The P66 graphite zone potentially provides Triton further opportunities to expand the TMG product range, supply to a greater number of clients and obtain higher sale prices for the Nicanda Hill graphite."
NICANDA HILL
P66 JUMBO FLAKE GRAPHITE ZONE
Triton is pleased to announce that, as a result of the current Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) drilling program, the Company has identified a substantial jumbo flake graphite zone at Nicanda Hill - known as "P66".
This new graphitic zone is in addition to the initial JORC 2012 compliant graphite resource as declared in 2014. The Company verifies that diamond drill hole GBND0055 intersected strong graphitic mineralisation with extensive jumbo flake graphite present in the drill core.
Triton has now completed a number of additional drill holes both north and south of the original P66 intersection, which have confirmed the continuity of jumbo flake graphite mineralisation over a considerable distance.
The P66 zone is located to the north-west and outside of the previously defined graphitic mineralisation at Nicanda Hill and was discovered whilst testing a geophysical anomaly located outside the know resource footprint (refer to Figure 1 in link below).
Based on the previous strong correlation demonstrated between the VTEM anomalies and the associated graphite drill intersections at Nicanda Hill, Triton is confident that the correlation will continue at the P66 zone, which could amount a substantial mineral resource of jumbo flake graphite.
The geometry of the new graphitic zone is yet to be fully defined and additional exploration work and drilling will be completed by Triton in order to obtain a better understanding of the true dimensions of the P66 graphite zone and to define a mineral resource. The zone has been confirmed in drill hole GBND0056, which is located 100m to the north of drill hole GBND0055. Drill hole GBND0056 ended at 152m in good visual graphite mineralisation, so there is scope to extend the zone at depth if required. Drilling of drill hole GBND0057 is currently underway.
On 21 October 2014, Triton announced the Nicanda Hill global Mineral Resource estimate comprising 1,457 Million Tonnes (Mt) at an average grade of 10.7% Total Graphitic Carbon (TGC) and 0.27% Vanadium Pentoxide (V2O5) and was classified as either Inferred Mineral Resources (328Mt) or Indicated Mineral Resources (1,129Mt). The Mineral Resource estimate was completed in accordance with the JORC Code, 2012 edition and summarised in Table 1 below.
Classification Tonnes Grade Contained Grade Contained (Mt) (TGC%) Graphite(Mt) (V2O5%) V2O5(Mt)Indicated 328 11.0 36.1 0.26 0.85Inferred 1,129 10.6 119.7 0.27 3.05 Total 1,457 10.7 155.9 0.27 3.93
Table 1: Balama North - Nicanda Hill Global Mineral Resource
Note that some of the numbers may not equate fully due to the effects of rounding.
Visual inspections of the drill core from the P66 zone shows a high volume of large, jumbo and super-jumbo flake graphite, that appears to readily separate on the outer surface of the drill core samples (Figure 2 in link below).
Figure 2 shows examples of super-jumbo graphite flakes liberated from drill core samples found in the P66 zone. The scale clearly shows that the graphite flakes obtained from the Nicanda Hill samples are well in excess of the 2000µ (2mm).
The Company believes that, based on the visual inspections of the drill core samples obtained from the P66 zone, that the material has a number of physical similarities to the graphite mineralisation identified at the Company's Ancuabe project (refer Figure 3). These similarities include the very large graphite flakes and coarse gneissic texture associated with higher metamorphic grade.
The discovery of the P66 zone is an exciting and economically significant outcome for Triton. The strong presence of jumbo flake graphite at Nicanda Hill will complement the wide range of the graphite flake sizes, including fines, medium and large flakes, making it one of the most unique graphite deposits in the world and possibly the best large volume high-quality graphite resource in Mozambique.
This is a very exciting development for Triton, as the P66 zone now provides Triton further opportunities and greater flexibility to increase the TMG product range, to meet current off-take demands and to potentially supply to a larger range of graphite end users across the globe. The jumbo flake graphite will provide additional benefits for Triton, once commercial graphite concentrate production and enhanced graphite products commence in the near future.
Jumbo flake graphite attracts a premium price in the graphite market of more than US$2,000 per tonne. The addition of the jumbo flake zone is likely to have very positive impact on the overall economics of mining operations at the Nicanda Hill deposit.
The drilling was undertaken as part of a comprehensive DFS program which includes resource infill drilling within limits of the Year 10 pit perimeter, hydrology (pit dewatering and process water supply), test pitting, pit geotechnical and sterilisation.
As previously announced on 11 May 2015, the results from the resource infill drilling program will be used to confirm the current resource interpretation and to establish the optimum grade control pattern within the limits of the Years 1 to 10 design pit.
Further, this additional drilling will also provide Triton sufficient information to underpin a partial but significant upgrade of the mineral resource from indicated to measured classification. The reclassified resource material will then form the basis of developing a substantial quantity of proven graphite reserves to both underpin the project economics and reduce the risk profile.
Assay results from the DFS drilling program are being received from the laboratory, where they will be reviewed and validated by the Company. Initial results from the additional DFS drilling are very encouraging and appear to fully validate and reinforce the original Nicanda Hill resource model.
Apart from the discovery of the P66 graphite zone, the DFS continues to progress well at the Nicanda Hill deposit and remains on schedule and within budget with a targeted completion by the end of 2015.
Triton will provide further updates on the results from the P66 graphite zone as they become available.
ANCUABE
EXPLORATION PROGRAM
A number of access tracks into the main drill target areas, including the construction of a vehicle river crossing in order to get the drill rig and associated equipment to the drill sites have been completed (refer Figure 4). The construction of the access tracks is still on-going with theD6 bulldozer, to provide access the remainder of the drill target areas. A new all-weather general site access road is also being constructed to gain direct access to the bitumen highway to Pemba, thus significantly decreasing transport distances.
Further reconnaissance mapping and site preparation has identified additional graphitic outcropping which clearly contains a considerable quantity of jumbo flake graphite (refer Figure 5 in link below).
Triton considers these additional graphitic outcropping zones at Ancuabe to be very encouraging and is optimistic of further exploration success.
The initial drilling program which is now well underway was designed to test a number of VTEM-based targets at the Ancuabe project. Triton will provide further updates as the results from the Ancuabe initial drill program become available.
CONCLUSIONS
The Nicanda Hill deposit continues to set new high standards and the identification of the P66 jumbo flake graphite zone now provides Triton even more opportunities to expand the TMG product range.
Triton is now targeting with the combination of the Nicanda Hill and Ancuabe graphite projects to provide high volume and quality graphite concentrates and products, which includes greater than 600 micron jumbo flake graphite, to our existing off take partners and additionally to a global range of end users.
With the DFS on schedule for completion by the end of 2015, the Company is well positioned to continue with the rapid development of the Nicanda Hill graphite deposit and remains on track to commence commercial graphite concentrate production and enhanced graphite products in the near future.
The P66 zone will assist Triton in establishing TMG as a new global graphite-industry benchmark, by aiming to offer the world's lowest cost and most diversified graphite product range together with the longevity of a reliable supply of high quality flake graphite.
To view tables and figures, please visit:
http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-TON-731548.pdf
About Triton Minerals Ltd
Triton Minerals Limited (ASX:TON) is an ASX listed, responsible mineral explorer and resource management company headquartered in Perth, Australia.
Led by a highly experienced management team, Triton Minerals' vision is to grow shareholder's value through discovery or development of base metal, gold and other precious metal deposits.
Triton has made excellent progress with its three Graphite projects located in the Cabo Delgado Province in Mozambique, with the program successfully identifying a number of graphitic exposures.
It is the Company's belief that the Mozambique, Balama North Project could host multiple and very substantial world class graphite deposits.
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