The 20th annual Australian Mining Prospect Awards have dubbed International Graphite Ltd (ASX:IG6)’s Springdale Project as 'Discovery of the Year', demonstrating its significance to the broader Australian resource industry.
The Australian Mining Prospect Awards recognise the best in mining and minerals processing.
One of the most prestigious mining awards in Australia, 'Discovery of the Year' celebrates greenfield or brownfield sites acknowledged for their substantial impact on Australian industry.
Four judges chose the Western Australian Springfield Graphite Project, which has grown from an unknown asset into the second-biggest graphite deposit in the country in under 18 months.
The deposit’s resource base currently sits at 49.3 million tonnes at 6.5% total graphitic carbon, the second-largest graphite deposit in Australia and one of the top 15 outside of China.
Potential for further resource growth
“This is wonderful recognition of the skills of our technical team and in particular our exploration team led by Darren Sparks, from OmniGeoX,” International Graphite managing director and CEO Andrew Worland said.
“Four graphite discoveries and a 3.4 times increase in mineral resources is testament to a well-planned and executed drilling program.
“In a very short period of time, we have established the Springdale Graphite Project as a serious development stage property with significant further mineral resource growth potential.
“Springdale will be an important source of raw material for the downstream processing operations we are developing up the road at Collie.
“Having a complete mine-to-market supply chain, in a Tier 1 resource jurisdiction like Western Australia, sets International Graphite apart. It will ensure we can create jobs and opportunities in our regional communities and retain the value of our natural resources at home in WA.”
In addition to the company’s sizeable resource base, the project has plenty of potential for further growth – four new graphite discoveries were made in 2022-23 with large exploration areas still to be investigated.
Importantly, more than 27% of the resource is now at a JORC-compliant indicated level of surety, with more drilling planned in the near future.
From mine to market
IG6 is developing Springdale as part of an integrated, mine-to-market supply chain that will feed battery-grade graphite concentrate into the Australian battery and energy storage market.
The company intends to develop a long-life, open cut graphite mine with a simple flotation circuit on-site at Springdale.
A secure and stable feed of graphite concentrate will then flow to International Graphite’s downstream processing operations in development at Collie, also in Western Australia.
IG6 is confident the fine flake mineralisation at Springdale is ideally suited for the manufacture of battery materials – bulk test work is already underway, and the company expects to produce a scoping study by the end of the calendar year, with a full feasibility study to follow in 2024.
That will time well with the beginning of operations at International Graphite’s first commercial graphite micronising plant at Collie, which is also on schedule for late 2024.
The electric vehicle industry’s demand for the vital battery metal has grown to such an extent that some 8-fold increase in mining from 2022 levels will be required to meet it – a challenge IG6 is well-positioned to rise to.
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