Outstanding Results up to 96.8% Flake Graphite in Concentrate...

Outstanding Results up to 96.8% Flake Graphite in Concentrate for Lac Rainy
Bulk Concentrate in Preparation for Downstream Spheroidization & Li-Ion Battery Tests in Germany
Metals Australia Ltd (ASX:MLS) (“Metals Australia” or the “Company” is very pleased to report high-purity
flake-graphite concentrate results of up to 96.8% Total Graphitic Carbon (Cg) from the Phase 2 metallurgical
testwork and processing flow-sheet development program on its 100% owned Lac Rainy High-Grade Graphite
Project (“Lac Rainy” or the “Project” in Quebec, Canada (see Figure 1 for location).
The results from this extensive Phase 2 testwork program follow Phase 1 testwork1 that generated excellent
preliminary flotation concentrate results of up to 97% Cg, with a significant proportion (>20%) of large flake1.
The Scoping Study2 that followed this Phase 1 testwork demonstrated the strong economic potential of the
Lac Rainy Graphite Project to generate high-operating margins and capital payback by year 4 of a 14-year
mine life producing nearly 100kt of concentrate per annum in full production.
Highlights from the Phase 2 metallurgical testwork and flowsheet development program are:
i) Optimised tests produced combined fine/medium flake (-150 micron (μm)) and large flake (+150μm)
concentrate grading 96.8% Cg, which is at the upper end of the targeted range of 95 to 97% Cg.
ii) The proportion of larger flake recovered under these optimised grinding and flotation flowsheet
conditions was 13.9% in the +150μm fraction, at a very high purity of 97.0% Cg (see Table 1).
iii) The mass proportion of medium to fine (-150μm) flake recovered using the optimised flowsheet
conditions was 86.1%, at a high-purity of 96.7% Cg (see Table 1), which is well above the >95% Cg
targeted for down-stream spheroidization and purification testing.
The flow-sheet development program has significantly improved the open-circuit processing conditions of
the rougher, primary cleaning and secondary cleaning flotation circuits, providing a stepping-stone to feasibility
study level, larger scale, closed circuit and variability testing.
The optimised processing circuit flow-sheet conditions that generated the combined concentrate grade of
96.8% Cg are currently being applied to a larger volume of composite sample, in order to produce 10 to 12kg of
concentrate, including >10kg of the fine-medium (-150μm) flake fraction, at the targeted grade of >96% Cg.
The -150μm flake size component of this bulk concentrate sample will be shipped to specialist battery grade
graphite testing group, ProGraphite GmbH (ProGraphite), in Germany.
ProGraphite will conduct specialist downstream testwork, including spheroidization and purification,
targeting 99.9% Cg purification upgrade and battery testwork to determine the quality of the Lac Rainy
graphite products for use in lithium-ion battery applications in the Electric Vehicle (EV) industry.
Confirmation that the high-grade graphite resource at Lac Rainy of 13.3Mt @ 11.5% Cg3 can produce high-purity
graphite suitable for lithium-ion battery applications will allow the Company to advance the outstanding
exploration potential of the Project. The Company has only drilled 1.6km of the over 4km strike-length Carheil
trend (see Figure 1). In addition, the parallel West Carheil trend, that has previously produced very high-grade
rockchip results of up to 28.5% Cg4, also remains undrilled. Drilling of these identified graphitic trends offers
potential to significantly increase the size, and potentially the grade, of the Lac Rainy Mineral Resource.