BlackEarth Minerals NL (ASX: BEM) (“BlackEarth”, the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has commenced the excavation of 60 tonnes of bulk material from the Maniry Graphite Project (the “Project”) in southern Madagascar, as part of its trial mining / large scale pilot program.
The mining and excavation activities on site are expected to be completed by late November, and the 60+ tonnes bulk sample is expected to arrive at Beijing General Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (“BGRIMM”) in early January 2020. An initial 250kg of Maniry material has already been received at BGRIMM’s facility in China, with testing expected to commence shortly, with the aim of establishing optimal operating conditions for the large scale pilot plant program (“Stage 2”). Mining from the defined Razafy Resource has commenced with the full cooperation and involvement of the local community. The full program involving trial mining and piloting will provide BEM with:
- Greater understanding of early mining conditions
- Final Process Design Criteria (“PDC”)
- Final equipment sizing and power draws
- Analysis and test work on the final tailings
- Sufficient concentrate sample to finalise binding offtake arrangements prior to the commencement of construction
BlackEarth Minerals Managing Director, Mr Tom Revy,
