Bass Metals Sells First Graphite Concentrate from Graphmada

Australia-based Bass Metals (ASX:BSM) has sold the first graphite concentrate from its fully operational Graphmada mine in Madagascar, the company announced on Monday (August 20).

Bass Metals sold 100 metric tonnes of premium concentrate through a European offtake deal. The large-flake mine is close to reaching its final stage 1 objective of achieving positive cashflow from operations, the company said in a statement.

“Achieving first sales provides the company cash flow and sets a strong foundation to our aim of establishing positive cash flow from our operations in 2018,” CEO Tim McManus said.

The first sale also achieved record pricing for concentrate, with jumbo-flake concentrate reaching a price of US$1,700 per metric tonne free on board. Bass has another 300 metric tonnes of saleable concentrate warehoused at the Port of Toamasina.

Earlier in August, the company’s process plant achieved nameplate production of 25 metric tonnes per hour (tphr) feed, an effective run rate of 500 metric tonnes per month process plant production.

Since this achievement, the process plant has gone to exceed nameplate production, reaching up to 35 tphr feed.

“Avoiding debt in achieving our strategic objectives gives us a highly competitive all in sustaining cost of production. We now intend to build inventory and sales over the immediate period having achieved intended production rates,” said Peter Wright, Bass Metals’ executive director.

Looking ahead, Bass will aim to accelerate its growth strategy of building stage 2 and a stage 3 graphite facility. At the same time, it will continue its brownfields development program, with the goal of materially increasing resource inventories in direct proximity to Graphmada’s processing infrastructure.

Aside from Graphmada, Bass owns the Millie’s Reward hard-rock lithium project, where the company is conducting a comprehensive exploration program.

On Monday, shares of Bass Metals closed up 13.04 percent in Sydney at AU$0.026.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Priscila Barrera, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.