Black Rock Signs Third Offtake for Mahenge Graphite

Black Rock Mining (ASX:BKT) has signed a third offtake agreement for natural flake graphite from its Mahenge mine in Tanzania, this time with Chinese trading house Taihe Soar. 

The agreement, announced on Monday (January 7), is set to last three years and will see Black Rock supply up to 37,500 tonnes of sized graphite concentrate in the first year, up to 80,000 tonnes in the second year and up to 100,000 tonnes by the third year.

Black Rock’s other offtake agreements are with Qingdao Fujin Graphite Company, signed in October 2018, and Heilongjiang Bohao Graphite, also signed in October 2018. The combined material allocated to all three companies accounts for approximately 85 percent of Mahenge’s proposed 240,000-tonne annual production rate by the third year.

“This offtake agreement is significant as having effectively sold out modules 1 and 2, clearly demonstrates that strong market demand exists for Mahenge’s unique premium and ultra products,” Black Rock CEO John de Vries said in a statement.

He added, “[t]his offtake would not have been possible, without access to concentrate from Black Rock’s study staged pilot plant, the largest in the sector. The pilot plant has been fundamental to the success of our marketing strategy.”

The company made steady progress on Mahenge through 2018, including pilot plant production that saw an average grade of 99.3-percent graphite concentrate using only flotation methods.

Later in the year, Black Rock released a definitive feasibility study for Mahenge that indicates a 32-year mine life, an ore reserve of 70 million tonnes at 8.5-percent total graphitic carbon (TGC) and resources of 212 million tonnes at 7.8 percent TGC.

Pricing for the offtake agreement with Taihe Soar has not yet been determined, but will be established through a formal agreement entered into within a year of the offtake’s execution.

Going forward, Black Rock is working to optimize its mine plan to “compress” its development schedule and increase production by adding a fourth self-funding module.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Olivia Da Silva, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.