PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior Walkabout Resources has reported a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource of 15.3-million tonnes at its Lindi jumbo graphite project, in Tanzania.
Grading at 10.1% graphitic carbon, the resource was estimated to contain about 1.54-million tonnes of graphite.
“There’s a phrase in the minerals industry that ‘grade is king’. The multiple and discrete domains of this exciting resource should provide the flexibility and robustness to a potential mining operation that will give the Lindi jumbo project a huge advantage,” said Walkabout MD Allan Mulligan.
“The possible option of mining substantially higher grade zones during periods of economic downturn, as opposed to being locked in to a grade of around 5%, are huge project enablers.”
In terms of upgrade potential, the mineral resource has used less than 1% of the tenement package area of 325 km2, and significant upside existed for further upgrades, Mulligan said.
Walkabout had adopted a focused, modest, low-risk approach to exploration and potential mine development, which was intended to prevent large expenditure on resource size at the expense of product quality.
“We remain confident that the resource size is adequate and in line with our prudent and risk-averse development approach for a modular first stage operation. The technical studies will now commence in earnest,” Mulligan said.