News
11 December 2024
Black Earth Minerals (ASX:BEM) have recently announced they have secured ongoing support from the Madagascan Ministry of Mines and Strategic Resources. Following a meeting in June with the Minister, Mr Fidianiavo Ravoktra, the company is pleased to reveal that they had been offered the Minister’s full support for the Maniry project, acknowledging the strategic value that the project holds in one of the poorest parts of the country.
Black Earth Minerals (ASX:BEM) have recently announced they have secured ongoing support from the Madagascan Ministry of Mines and Strategic Resources. Following a meeting in June with the Minister, Mr Fidianiavo Ravoktra, the company is pleased to reveal that they had been offered the Minister’s full support for the Maniry project, acknowledging the strategic value that the project holds in one of the poorest parts of the country.
This proclamation of support comes on the back of a strong confirmation of the initial ALS Perth pilot results. The Beijing General Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (BGRIMM), an independent research group based in China, have independently established the veracity of the metallurgical tests that were initially done via a new round of testing. BGRIMM assessment resulted in several noteworthy observations from the results, including;
“The graphite ore owned by BlackEarth Minerals NL contains a high distribution ratio of large flakes.”
“We obtained a very high concentrate yield of large graphite flakes and a high recovery of graphite from the tests.”
“The fixed carbon content has already reached a high level, and it can even be further improved through optimising processing and technical parameters.”
The strength of results such as this have led to the company having positive preliminary offtake discussions with major Chinese buyers. China, meanwhile, has continued to increase its imports of natural graphite to meet rising domestic demand from the lithium ion battery section, with monthly imports increasing by 2000% since the end of 2017.
The country is seeking to import the natural graphite it needs, which is contributing heavily to the favourable market conditions for graphite at the moment. This is because, according to Roskill, China retains significant graphite resources, but they are becoming increasingly inaccessible as the shallower reserves are depleted. As such, the deeper reserves are naturally more expensive to extract, leading to Chinese consumers of graphite to look further afield for their supply.
This has resulted in almost all new shipments of graphite arriving on Chinese shores from just two countries; Mozambique and Madagascar. These countries offer more favourable pricing even in comparison to domestic supply, and have generally provided a better quality product.
This consequential demand has been driven by the explosion of demand and production of electric vehicles, or EVs as they’re known in the trade these days. While lithium is the commodity that has stolen the headlines for its important role in EV batteries, graphite doesn’t appear to have received the attention it warrants. Across the East China Sea, in the Japanese factories of Nissan, each iteration of the company’s fully electric Leaf models contains 40 kilograms of graphite as it rolls out of the factory doors.
The demand for high quality graphite is only growing as the demand for electric alternatives to cars and other consumer products increases. Companies such as BlackEarth Minerals are particularly well placed to service this demand because of the standard of the commodity they produce. The company’s Maniry project offers a highly desirable combination of low costs and top grade product that has already drawn interest from Chinese buyers.
BlackEarth Minerals trades under the ASX code: ‘BEM’
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