PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Graphite developer Volt Resources has signed an offtake agreement with China’s Guangxing Electrical Materials (GEM) for 5 000 t/y of flake graphite concentrate from the Stage 1 production of the Namangale project, in Tanzania.
The company said on Friday that it was hoping to finalise a binding offtake agreement for the five-year contract, which starts in mid-2018, by the end of September this year.
This is the third such agreement signed by Volt with a Chinese group since May this year, with the company also completing a 1 000 t/y offtake agreement with US-based NanoGraphene.
“The benefits from our recent visit to China continues to flow through with GEM agreeing to take 5 000 t of flake graphite concentrate from mid-2018. As we progress the satisfaction of conditions precedent for each of the current agreements in place, Volt could have binding commitments for all Stage 1 production before year-end,” said CEO Trevor Matthews.
Volt was planning to develop the Stage 1 Namangale project into a 10 000 t/y to 20 000 t/y graphite processing operation, with the Stage 2 development, which will be completed in 2020, to be based on market demand.
Matthews said that the agreements were significant assets to bring to the table as the company continued discussions with prospective investors and financiers, to provide development funding for the Stage 1 development.