Sponsored Content for John de Vries

Black Rock Mining is gearing up to develop its Mahenge graphite mine in Tanzania, having now opened three offices at local villages. The Mahenge graphite project boasts a 212 million tonne resource grading a respectable 7.8% total graphite content and the company says it has now established key relationships with locals and Government, both of which are key requirements for doing business in Tanzania.

Black Rock Mining's Mahenge project in Tanzania has successfully produced spherical graphite that exceeds industry standards for battery anode materials with yields of up to 53% and purity of 99.98% TGC during a large-scale trial in a commercial environment. The results are higher than Chinese industrial benchmark yields of between 35% and 45% and purity of 99.5% TGC and replicate results achieved during laboratory testing.

Black Rock Mining has significantly improved the project economics of its Mahenge graphite mine in Tanzania, by ramping up the proposed production rate from 250,000 tonnes per annum to 340,000 tonnes per annum at the request of its offtake customers. The company will add a fourth processing module at the operation to increase production of the highly sought-after, world-class premium graphite flake product.

Black Rock has executed two further Chinese offtake agreements at mutually agreed grades, volumes and prices for the premium graphite flake concentrate products sourced and processed from its impressive Mahenge project in Tanzania. With the pricing framework now in place for four of its five offtake partners, the company is now focussed on delivering an optimised Definitive Feasibility Study for the project.

Black Rock has appointed two experienced executives to support the development and potential construction of its impressive Mahenge graphite project in Tanzania later this year. Ian Murray has joined as a Non-Executive Director and will assist in establishing financing of the project, while Jeffrey Dawkins will work with the Board to institute business platforms to support project development and future mining operations.

Black Rock Mining's Chinese EPC partner Yantai Jinyaun has generated high quality, large flake dominant, graphite concentrates grading 98.7% purity at 95.5% recovery from pilot plant studies on the company's Tanzanian Mahenge ores. The test work was observed by customers, partners and potential investors and completed to validate the company's optimised circuit design and processing flowsheets.

Black Rock Mining's Chinese EPC partner Yantai Jinyaun has generated high quality, large flake dominant, graphite concentrates exceeding 99% purity at 93% recovery from pilot plant studies on the company's Tanzanian Mahenge ores. The work was observed by offtake partners and potential investors and completed to validate the company's optimised circuit design and processing flowsheets.

Black Rock Mining's EPC partner Yantai Jinyaun has delivered high quality, flake dominant, graphite concentrates exceeding 99% purity at 93% recovery from pilot plant test work studies in China on ores from the company's Mahenge deposit in Tanzania. The work was aimed at optimising circuit design and process flowsheets and resulted in an improved graphite flake distribution, whilst preserving exceptional concentrate grades.

The Tanzanian Government has granted Black Rock Mining two mining licences over its massive Mahenge graphite project and the company now looks to be a real chance at making the quantum leap from explorer to miner. The impressive DFS for Mahenge shows a 32-year project life that could generate a post-tax NPV of USD$895m and an IRR of 42.8% with CAPEX numbers that don't look to be too frightening.