Tanzania : high net worth individuals support Liandu high quality graphite project

A consortium of high net worth individuals will provide up to 400,000 £ to support the development of the Mahenge Liandu high quality graphite project that Armadale Capital Plc wholly owns in south-east Tanzania.

The facility will fund working capital and support the advancement of the project towards production. It will also enable completion of a feasibility study in the first semester 2018, the investment company reported on 20 October when disclosing the financing agreement with the consortium.

Earlier in September, Armadale said it achieved production of graphite concentrates at exceptional purity of up to 99.1% total graphitic carbon (TGC) with Liandu graphite. The test work was conducted on 300kg bulk sample of graphite mineralisation taken from the Liandu graphite project, using a simple crushing and flotation circuit. The results underpin the potential of the project to produce high quality, commercial graphite concentrates, which should be suitable for a number of applications including the rapidly growing battery market.

Nick Johansen, Director of Armadale said the facility ensures the ongoing work programme of the company and that “development activities at Mahenge Liandu can continue unimpeded, as we advance our strategy to demonstrate the commercial scale, quality and strategic importance of this graphite asset to strategic investors and customers”.

With an interest rate of 10% per annum, the facility is repayable in full at the maturity date. Besides, the lender has the option to convert the loan to shares at a 10% discount to the volume weighted average price of an ordinary share for the 10 trading days immediately prior to the maturity date.

Now as main focus of Armadale Capital, the Liandu graphite project is located in a highly prospective region with a high-grade compliant inferred mineral resource estimate of 40.9Mt @ 9.41% TGC. At least 32Mt of this resource has an average grade of 10.47% TGC, one of the largest high-grade resources in Tanzania.

Work to date has demonstrated Mahenge Liandu’s potential as a commercially viable deposit with significant tonnage, high-grade coarse flake and near surface mineralization, implying a low strip ratio, contained within one contiguous ore body.