PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Graphite developer Volt Resources has inked a cooperation agreement with China National Building Materials General Machinery (CNBMGM), which could see the Chinese company become involved in the development of the Namangale project, in Tanzania.
Under the agreement, CNBGMG would become a potential offtake partner for graphite concentrate produced at the project, as well as providing engineering/construction support and facilitating the provision of project finance and credit insurance for both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the project.
If product trials proved successful, CNBMGM could take between 10 000 t/y and 15 000 t/y from the Stage 1 operation, and to support the Stage 2 feasibility work, the Chinese firm could also agree to indicative long-term offtake tonnage from the Stage 2 operation.
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.
Volt was hoping to cement the cooperation agreement within the next three months, which could result in project development funding and credit insurance support for the Stage 1 project by mid-2018.