An assessment of the Talga Battery Deposit at Vitangi

I have read the extensive detailed announcement today and I thought it might be worthwhile sharing my assessment.

The first thing that strikes is the consistency of Talga's effort to identify what it has on its tenements. The drilling results run over 10 years from 2012 to the most recent one today. The fact that the cut-off rate is now 12.5% is astonishing, up from 10%, which speaks volumes on the quality of the Vitangi deposit. Talga has ignored any intermediate thinner layers, which would still have some considerable value in other applications than EV batteries. This is an extremely conservative assessment when 12.5% graphite is considered as almost bonanza grade elsewhere. This is also why the European Investment Bank has had the confidence to approve EU funding for the project after extensive due diligence. Resource tonnage for Niska still comes in at 4.381 million tons of graphite content. In addition the Nunasvaara open pit reserve is at 545,000 tons graphite content and the resource is at 2.101 million tons graphite content. I do not take into account any inferred resources, which require further drilling to confirm their commerciality. The Vitangi deposit has already been recognised as the largest European deposit by far.

I also note that there are no deleterious elements in the deposits that would affect the quality of the end product and the cost to get it to 99.92% purity before final processing at the Lulea plant under construction.

I have reviewed the last quarterly statement that spoke of the freehold land Talga has acquired in Vitangi. It encompasses the whole of Vitangi no.2, being all of Niska, most of Nunasvaara East and Nunasvaara North. The Nunasvaara no. 2 where the open pit is to be dug will be subject to a mining permit once all the final appeals have been considered by the Swedish approval process. This means no public access to the Vitangi no.2 for mushroom and berry picking or the creation of any other means of passage. The mine site itself outside the freehold land would become an industrial site with very clear access criteria that would also preclude any public access for safety reasons.

Finally I have turned my attention to the preliminary work on Vitangi no.6. This is very reminiscent of the work that was carried out on the Niska extension over the last few years. The deposit runs north of Niska up from the access road along the Vitangi river, which is a likely reindeer track to the winter pastures to the north of Vitangi. Should this deposit develop into something of the size of Vitangi no.2 then Talga would have a world class deposit of crystalline graphite. It is clear that the grades have not yet reached those achieved at Niska and Nunasvaara, but this is an initial exploratory investigation of a new deposit that is not yet fully delineated and understood. I very much doubt Talga would be disclosing it at this point if they were not very excited about the prospect.

As always the market has shrugged off this announcement.

I continue to hold, but as always please do your own research and draw your own conclusions.