Kingsland’s Leliyn project emerging as major graphite discovery at the perfect time

• Latest drill assays flag more wide, high-grade graphite hits; more upside to come
• Kingsland to upgrade the Leliyn project exploration target to maiden resource
• Graphite deficit looms driven by battery anode material used in EV batteries

 

Kingsland Minerals is confident its Leliyn project in the Northern Territory is emerging as a major graphite discovery, just as nascent electric vehicle sector demand begins to ramp up.

RC drilling commenced at the project in early May and diamond core drilling in early June with the aim of upgrading the large exploration target of 200-250Mt at 8-11% TGC for 16-27Mt of contained graphite to a mineral resource.

Newly announced results consistently grade more than 10% Total Graphitic Carbon (TGC) with wide intersections pointing to substantial tonnages, and include:

• 158m at 10.1 % from 16m (LERC_17); and
• 128m at 8.6 % from 45m (LERC_18), including 86m at 10.9% from 87m.

This follows thick, high-grade hits reported last month, of:

• 137m at 7.3% from 13m (LERC_13), including 47m at 10.9% from 69m;
• 139m at 7.0 % from 9m (LERC_14), including 63m @ 10.0% from 107m; and
• 130m at 6.3 % from 0m (LERC_11), including 21m @ 11.3% from 93m.

Kingsland Minerals (ASX:KNG) says this latest ‘exceptional’ batch of assays point to a substantial high-grade graphite discovery at Leliyn.

“These latest results further reinforce the potential of Leliyn,” MD Richard Maddocks said.

“The thick, high grade graphite intersections from surface really set this deposit apart. The drilling keeps extending the grade, strike and tonnage potential of Leliyn.”

Mineralisation at the project is open, drilling is ongoing, and more assays are pending.

 

More upside and a maiden mineral resource estimate

Notably, Leliyn’s exploration target is based on a graphitic schist measuring 5km long, 200m deep and 100m wide.

The 5km strike length of the schist sits within a longer 20km-long graphitic schist, with the initial exploration program focus on the 5km stretch containing the exploration target, which will underpin a maiden JORC resource.

However, Kingsland believes there is also significant exploration potential at depth and within the remaining 15km of graphitic schist.

 

More graphite needed to meet EV battery demand

The company says petrographic analysis indicates a graphite flake size of up to 160 micron, with an average of around 50-80 micron – which for the layman is the ideal size for uncoated spherical graphite used in battery anode material used in Electric Vehicles (EVs).

Due to soaring demand from the EV sector the global graphite market is forecast to move into deficit from this year.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence forecasts that we need 95 new graphite mines producing around 56,000tpa to meet the expected demand of around 7.21MT by 2035 – and they project a whopping 8Mt deficit by 2040.

 

 

It’s already a critical mineral in most jurisdictions, with China the main producer of both raw graphite flake and refined spherical graphite for EV battery use.

If Leliyn project has the upside that Kingsland believes it could, this bodes well for the company’s goal to become a key supplier of graphite to the EV market.

 

Metallurgical testwork planned for September

RC and Diamond core drilling is ongoing, and will continue to focus on infill drilling to provide sufficient drill spacing to estimate a mineral resource.

Once all assays have been received, composite samples for metallurgical test-work will be collected and submitted during the September quarter.

“Drilling is continuing and I’m looking forward to updating the market with more assay results,” Maddocks said.

“Metallurgical test-work samples will be submitted this quarter and we are expecting thin section petrographic analyses soon.”

Initial metallurgical work will focus on flotation characteristics to assess flotation concentrate grades and recoveries and to determine the optimal end-use for the graphite concentrate – and its suitability for EV batteries.

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Kingsland Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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