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#SVML Sovereign Metals LTD – Hydraulic Mining Trial Commences
HYDRAULIC MINING TRIAL COMMENCES
· Hydraulic mining trial has now commenced at Kasiya Pilot Site as part of ongoing Optimisation Study
· Trial is being conducted by Fraser Alexander, a global industry leader in hydraulic mining, following successful completion of dry mining trial in July 2024
· Hydraulic mining trial is expected to take approximately three months to complete and includes backfilling of main trial pit, deposition and rehabilitation testwork
· Previous testwork suggests soft, friable nature of Kasiya orebody should be suitable for hydraulic mining
· Pilot Phase continues to progress with oversight from Sovereign-Rio Tinto Technical Committee
· Rio Tinto has elected to increase its shareholding to 19.9% via an additional investment of A$0.7 million in Sovereign
Figure 1: Hydraulic mined material (slurry) flows freely to the collection point in the bottom of the sump.
Sovereign Metals Limited (ASX: SVM; AIM: SVML; OTCQX: SVMLF) (Sovereign or the Company) is pleased to announce the commencement of a hydraulic mining trial at its Kasiya Rutile-Graphite Project (Kasiya or Project) in Malawi as part of the ongoing Pilot Mining and Land Rehabilitation Program (Pilot Phase). The hydraulic mining trial aims to further develop previous testwork as part of the Kasiya Optimisation Study.
Managing Director and CEO, Frank Eagar commented: “With valuable insights gained from the dry-mining approach at Kasiya, we are now entering the next phase, which includes the commencement of the hydraulic mining tests, processing and backfilling material, and progressing towards the rehabilitation phase, which we expect to take three months to complete. Results from the Pilot Phase, in particular the analysis of dry-mining versus hydraulic mining, will be fundamental for the ongoing Optimisation Study.”
Classification 2.2: This announcement includes Inside Information
RIO TINTO TO INCREASE ITS SHARHOLDING TO 19.9%
On 17 July 2023, the Company announced that Rio Tinto Mining and Exploration Limited (Rio Tinto) had made an investment of $40.4 million in the Company through the issue of 83,095,592 fully paid ordinary shares (Shares) and 34,549,598 unlisted Options (Rio Tinto Options).
On 3 July 2024, the Company announced that Rio Tinto had exercised the Rio Tinto Options and the Company subsequently issued 34,549,598 Shares to Rio Tinto to raise an additional $18.5 million (before costs).
Rio Tinto has advised the Company that it has elected to make an additional investment of A$690,360 in Sovereign through the issue of 1,290,392 Shares (Additional Shares) to Rio Tinto pursuant to Rio Tinto’s first right of refusal on equity issues in accordance with the Investment Agreement between Rio Tinto and the Company dated 16 July 2023. Subject to the issue of Additional Shares, Rio Tinto will increase its shareholding in Sovereign to 19.9%.
HYDRAULIC MINING TRIAL
The saprolite-hosted mineralisation at Kasiya is predominantly homogenous, with consistent physical properties across the 1.8 billion tonne Mineral Resource Estimate. Pilot Phase data from the dry-mining trial has confirmed that no drilling, blasting, crushing, grinding, or milling is needed before stockpiling material for processing into rutile and graphite products.
The temporary water storage pond, constructed and sealed with natural clay from excavated material, has been filled with six million litres of ground water, predominantly from eight water boreholes on site. This water will be used during the hydraulic mining trial and continuously recycled from the constructed holding cells where sand and fines fractions will be stored respectively prior to the planned deposition and rehabilitation testwork.
Figure 2: Overview of the hydraulic mining trial.
All hydraulic mining equipment is skid-mounted for ease of operation and mobility. A barge-mounted pump, transports the slurry from the sump to a vibrating screen.
Figure 3: A pump, mounted to a barge, pumps the slurry to a vibrating screen.
Screen underflow is collected in a screen underpan and pumped through a stacker cyclone. The cyclone generates a -45 micron slurry on the overflow and a +45 micron sand on the underflow. This process is designed to replicate plant conditions where these fractions are produced as tailings, and will be used in subsequent in-pit deposition test work.
The overflow slurry is transferred to a settling pond, where it will settle, allowing for the recovery of approximately 34% of the water, which will be returned to the water storage pond. The concentrated slurry, along with the sand discharge from the cyclone underflow, will be used for the next set of tests in the in-pit deposition phase.
Land rehabilitation will be a key part of the ongoing Optimisation Study. Sovereign’s objective is to restore land post mining to conditions that match or surpass existing agricultural yields. The Pilot Phase will showcase to local communities the successful rehabilitation of land for agriculture post-mining. These efforts will also help Sovereign refine excavation and backfill techniques.
Blending test work will commence after the completion of the hydraulic mining tests. This phase will involve backfilling the seven individual test pits using various ratios of fines and sand to be followed by soil remediation and rehabilitation testwork.
Figure 4: The train of high-pressure pumps used to drive the water monitor are skid-mounted.
Figure 5: +2mm oversize is screened out using a vibrating screen.
ENQUIRIES
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Frank Eagar (South Africa/Malawi) +27 21 065 1890 |
Sam Cordin (Perth) +61(8) 9322 6322 |
Sapan Ghai (London) +44 207 478 3900
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Nominated Adviser on AIM and Joint Broker |
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SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP |
+44 20 3470 0470 |
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Ewan Leggat Charlie Bouverat |
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Joint Brokers |
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Stifel |
+44 20 7710 7600 |
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Varun Talwar |
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Ashton Clanfield |
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Berenberg |
+44 20 3207 7800 |
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Matthew Armitt |
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Jennifer Lee |
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Buchanan |
+ 44 20 7466 5000 |
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Competent Person Statement
The information in this announcement that relates to the Mineral Resource Estimate is extracted from an announcement dated 5 April 2023 entitled ‘Kasiya Indicated Resource Increased by over 80%’ which is available to view at www.sovereignmetals.com.au and is based on, and fairly represents information compiled by Mr Richard Stockwell, a Competent Person, who is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG). Mr Stockwell is a principal of Placer Consulting Pty Ltd, an independent consulting company. Sovereign confirms that a) it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in the original announcement; b) all material assumptions included in the original announcement continue to apply and have not materially changed; and c) the form and context in which the relevant Competent Persons’ findings are presented in this announcement have not been materially changed from the original announcement.
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Kasiya Total Indicated + Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate at 0.7% rutile cut-off grade |
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Classification |
Resource |
Rutile Grade |
Contained Rutile |
Graphite Grade (TGC) (%) |
Contained Graphite |
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Indicated |
1,200 |
1.0% |
12.2 |
1.5% |
18.0 |
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Inferred |
609 |
0.9% |
5.7 |
1.1% |
6.5 |
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Total |
1,809 |
1.0% |
17.9 |
1.4% |
24.4 |
Forward Looking Statement
This release may include forward-looking statements, which may be identified by words such as “expects”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “projects”, “plans”, and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on Sovereign’s expectations and beliefs concerning future events. Forward looking statements are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside the control of Sovereign, which could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Sovereign makes no undertaking to subsequently update or revise the forward-looking statements made in this release, to reflect the circumstances or events after the date of that release.
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (‘MAR’). Upon the publication of this announcement via Regulatory Information Service (‘RIS’), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.
#SVML Sovereign Metals LTD – Downstream Testwork Shows High Quality Graphite
DOWNSTREAM TESTWORK DEMONSTRATES HIGH QUALITY GRAPHITE FOR LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES
· Spherical Purified Graphite (SPG) with world-leading specifications successfully produced from Kasiya
· Kasiya’s spherical graphite purification demonstrated exceptionally low levels of residual impurities achieving a 99.99% loss-on-ignition (LOI)
· Kasiya SPG demonstrated all required parameters within industry standards with spheronisation yields of up to 68% with further scope to optimise in future testwork
· Testwork was undertaken as part of the Company’s graphite strategy to qualify and commercialise graphite concentrate for use in the lithium-ion battery sector
Sovereign Metals Limited (ASX:SVM; AIM:SVML) (the Company or Sovereign) is pleased to announce the results of downstream testwork conducted at leading, independent consultancy ProGraphite GmbH (ProGraphite) in Germany.
Sovereign provided Kasiya graphite concentrate to ProGraphite to produce and characterise coated spherical purified graphite (CSPG) active anode material for lithium-ion batteries. The overall program includes shaping and purification to produce SPG, coating of the material to produce CSPG and evaluation of the electrochemical performance of Kasiya CSPG in a battery. The initial steps of shaping and purification to produce SPG have now been completed with the results showing Kasiya SPG has world-leading specifications.
This SPG material is now undergoing coating and electrochemical testing to characterise CSPG active anode material for lithium-ion batteries.
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Table 1: Spherical Graphite Purification Results |
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SVM Spherical graphite <180 µm concentrate |
SVM Spherical graphite >180 µm concentrate |
Chinese |
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LOI Purity (%) |
99.99% |
99.99% |
>99.95% |
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Fe |
4.4 ppm |
3.3 ppm |
<30 ppm |
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Na |
<1.0 ppm |
<1.1 ppm |
<10 ppm |
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Cr |
1.1 ppm |
0.4 ppm |
<10 ppm |
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Cu |
0.7 ppm |
0.2 ppm |
<10 ppm |
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Ni |
<0.3 ppm |
<0.4 ppm |
<10 ppm |
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Al |
6.6 ppm |
8.8 ppm |
<10 ppm |
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Mo |
<0.3 ppm |
<0.3 ppm |
<10 ppm |
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Si |
7 ppm |
10 ppm |
<30 ppm |
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Ca |
4.3 ppm |
8.4 ppm |
<10 ppm |
1. National Standard of China – Spherical Graphite (GB/T 38887-2020)
The micronisation and spheronisation of Kasiya graphite concentrates achieved excellent yields to spherical graphite for the coarse concentrate and typical yields to spherical graphite for the fines concentrate, with room for further optimisation. The spherical graphite from the fine graphite concentrate in particular exhibited a narrow particle size distribution (D90/D10) ratio and both spherical graphite have reasonable Tap Density and typical BET for uncoated graphite. Coating of the graphite is expected to improve (increase) the tap density and improve (lower) the BET specific surface area.
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Table 2: Concentrate Shaping into Spherical Graphite Results |
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Kasiya Concentrate |
Kasiya Concentrate |
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D50 (microns) |
16.53 |
17.74 |
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D90/D10 Ratio |
2.29 |
2.96 |
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Yield to Spherical Graphite |
40% |
68% |
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Tap Density (g/cm3) |
0.93 |
0.93 |
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BET Specific Surface Area (m2/g) |
7.73 |
6.72 |
The spherical graphite products were purified with commercially proven acids purification and achieved excellent results with an exceptionally high LOI purity of 99.99%. Assays on key trace elements (Fe, Na, Cr, Cu, Al, Mo) show very low levels.
Further, the low Si and Ca results highlight that high quality Kasiya graphite is well-suited to single stage acids purification. Aggressive dosing in acids purification can result in elevated Ca levels due to precipitation of CaF2, necessitating multiple stages of purification to reduce both Si and Ca impurities. These initial purification results indicate that a single purification stage is sufficient for Kasiya graphite concentrate.
The SPG samples will undergo coating and electrochemical tests to provide baseline data for offtake discussions. The results of these tests are expected in the coming weeks.
Managing Director Frank Eagar commented: “These results clearly demonstrate that Kasiya has the potential to disrupt the China dominated graphite supply chain as a long term, secure source of high quality graphite ex-China. We believe Kasiya graphite will have industry low operating costs and is also one of the largest graphite resources globally holding a significant advantage over its graphite peers. We are very pleased to achieve these outstanding results at this stage of the program and will continue fast tracking our graphite product development and qualification campaign.”
Classification 2.2: This announcement includes Inside Information
ENQUIRIES
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Frank Eagar (South Africa/Malawi) +61(8) 9322 6322 |
Sam Cordin (Perth) |
Sapan Ghai (London)
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Nominated Adviser on AIM and Joint Broker |
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SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP |
+44 20 3470 0470 |
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Ewan Leggat Charlie Bouverat |
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Joint Brokers |
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Stifel |
+44 20 7710 7600 |
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Varun Talwar |
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Ashton Clanfield |
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Berenberg |
+44 20 3207 7800 |
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Matthew Armitt |
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Jennifer Lee |
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Buchanan |
+ 44 20 7466 5000 |
Competent Person Statement
The information in this report that relates to Metallurgical Testwork is based on information compiled by Dr Surinder Ghag, PhD., B. Eng, MBA, M.Sc., who is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (MAusIMM). Dr Ghag is engaged as a consultant by Sovereign Metals Limited. Dr Ghag has sufficient experience, which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking, to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’. Dr Ghag consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.
The information in this report that relates to Exploration Results is based on information compiled by Mr Samuel Moyle, a Competent Person who is a member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM). Mr Moyle is the Exploration Manager of Sovereign Metals Limited and a holder of ordinary shares and unlisted performance rights in Sovereign Metals Limited. Mr Moyle has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken, to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’. Mr Moyle consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.
Forward Looking Statement
This release may include forward-looking statements, which may be identified by words such as “expects”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “projects”, “plans”, and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on Sovereign’s expectations and beliefs concerning future events. Forward looking statements are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside the control of Sovereign, which could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Sovereign makes no undertaking to subsequently update or revise the forward-looking statements made in this release, to reflect the circumstances or events after the date of that release.
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (‘MAR’). Upon the publication of this announcement via Regulatory Information Service (‘RIS’), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.