Talga ups mineral resource estimate at Vittangi graphite mine

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Advanced materials company Talga Resources has upped the mineral resource at its Sweden-based Vittangi graphite mineral resource by 29% more total tonnes, with a grade increase from 24.4% total graphite content (TGC) to 25.3% TGC.

The ASX-listed company announced on Wednesday that Vittangi had been updated from Joint Ore Reserves Committee (Jorc) 2004 status to Jorc 2012 status, measuring total indicated and inferred mineral resources of 9.8-million tonnes grading 25.3% TGC for 2.4-million tonnes of contained graphite.

The updated resource at Vittangi is in addition to existing resources at two of Talga’s other graphite projects, Jalkunen and Raitajarvi, both located in Sweden.

Jalkunen has a total inferred mineral resource of 31.5-million tonnes TGC for 4.69-million tonnes of contained graphite.

Raitajarvi has a total indicated and inferred mineral resource of 4.3-million tonnes grading 7.1% TGC for 305 kilotonnes of contained graphite.

BATTERY TEST WORK
Meanwhile Talga announced that a new battery testing programme was under way at the University of Warwick Energy Innovation Centre, in the UK. This programme differed from previous and concurrent testing under way in Germany, in that it works at an industrial rather than a laboratory scale.

The programme had so far used Talga’s material to produce lithium ion coin cell batteries. The company advised that performance testing would soon commence to test the batteries over up to 1 000 charge-discharge cycles.

Talga in February announced the results of independent testwork performed on its Vittangi graphite ore. The test involved processing the ore into refined natural graphite for use in produce the anode used in lithium-ion batteries.

Talga’s findings indicated that commercial-grade energy capacity in lithium-ion battery anodes could be delivered without the need for milling, purification, spheronisation or coating.

This demonstrated the advantage of Vittangi ore in making multiple high-value products – alongside graphene – as part of Talga’s advanced technology materials strategy.

Talga further announced that it had appointed Dr Siva Bohm as its new chief technology officer. Bohm will be based in Rudolstadt, Germany at the company’s pilot test facility.