Volt Signs Cooperation Deal with Chinese Graphite Company

Volt Resources’ (ASX:VRC) subsidiary Volt Graphite Tanzania has signed a cooperation agreement with one of China’s largest graphite companies, Haida Graphite, the Australian miner announced on Wednesday (August 22).

Under the agreement, Volt and HAIDA will exchange relevant information and conduct testing on Volt’s graphite product samples, as both parties look to build a working relationship for the future supply and purchase of Bunyu graphite product.

The Bunyu project, which is located in southern Tanzania, has a mineral resource of 461 million tonnes at 4.9 percent total graphitic carbon (TGC) and a JORC-compliant ore reserve estimated at 127 million tonnes at 4.4 percent TGC.

“Whilst in the early stages, our cooperation agreement with HAIDA serves as a precursor to the signing of a potential offtake agreement in due course, and we are very pleased to be working with another of the major graphite players in China,” Volt’s CEO, Trevor Matthews, said.

Last year, the company signed its firts offtake agreement with US-based Nano Graphene for a minimum of 5,000 tonnes of flake graphite concentrate grading 98 percent, over five years starting in January 2018.

Earlier this month, Volt signed a second offtake deal with Qingdao Tiangshengda graphite for 9,000 tonnes per annum of Bunyu graphite product over five years.

“It is clear that Volt is continuing to receive very positive feedback from a number of parties regarding demand for Bunyu’s coarse flake graphite product which holds us in very good standing as we target the start-up of stage 1 production and subsequent large-scale stage 2 expansion,” Matthews added.

In July, Volt released a feasibility study for stage one development at the project, which will establish infrastructure and its market position for an expansion that will come in stage two.

Stage one is based on a mining and processing plant throughput rate of 400,000 tonnes of ore per year, with the intention of producing an average of 23,700 tonnes per year of graphite products.

Looking ahead, the company said further discussions with other potential offtake partners are also advancing well and the company looks forward to providing further updates on offtake agreements in due course.

On Wednesday, shares of Volt Resources closed up 5.26 percent in Sydney at AU$0.20.

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