Graphite deposits occur in three forms: flake graphite, vein graphite, and amorphous graphite.

Landis (1971) tentatively concluded that graphite formation is primarily dependent on metamorphic temperature and forms above 400°C, with pressure and variation in starting material constituting secondary controls.

The Coosa graphite deposits are flake graphite deposits in high grade metamorphic rocks. They are associated with anomalous vanadium, including the vanadium-mica roscoellite, and nickel, as well as other elements.

Geological mapping of the Coosa resource grid was carried out by Alabama Graphite geologists based on stream sections, road cuts, drill pads, and trenches. The main graphite schist trends northeast and to the south changes to north-south, and joins with another unit of graphite schist to the east. There is garnet schist on the east side of the graphite schist, which dies out to the south. These features may be interpreted as an anticline plunging at a low angle to the south with a core of garnet schist overlain structurally by graphite schist. The graphite schist is underlain structurally on the west side by quartz-muscovite-biotite-graphite schist.

Open pit mining was selected as the mining method to examine the Coosa deposit based on the decision to restrict mining to the shallow oxidized horizon as well as the very low strip ratio of the deposit. As there is very little waste rock, and mining would not occur in competent rock, underground bulk mining was not considered to be a practical mining method for this deposit.

Due to the decision to only mine the oxidized mill feed initially, all waste and overburden material was to be hauled outside of potential mining areas. Therefore, no backfilling of pits was to be planned for so that future potential mining below the oxidized horizon could be preserved.

Pit designs were generally very shallow with depths up to approximately 100 feet. Four starter phases were identified in the northern area of the project, followed by six small lower grade pits to the south. Some mining areas were standalone pits and while others were pushbacks of other phases.

Mining will not include blasting, so a simple, small conventional loading and hauling fleet will be used. It will consist of loading with a 6.0 cubic yard excavator in the pit and 45 ton articulated trucks. Assistance to the excavator will be with a 400+ horsepower dozer to loosen and push material to the excavator for loading. Additional support to the mine and plant will be provided by graders and smaller dozers to dress roads and waste/overburden storage facilities.

The proposed method of graphite recovery from the Coosa deposit consists of conventional crushing and milling, followed by rougher and cleaner froth flotation. The cleaner flotation concentrate is then transported to a purification plant that includes micronization and spheronization prior to upgrading by thermal purification to produce the final product.

The Coosa concentrator is designed for a nominal 16,500 tons per month run of mine feed.

Mine haul trucks will tip into a surge bin feeding a primary jaw crusher designed for 86% availability.

The rougher flotation stage consists of six conventional (“trough”) cells in series. The rougher concentrate is combined with the flash concentrate and pumped to a pre-cleaner flotation circuit consisting of five trough cells in series.

The pre-cleaner concentrate is dewatered at 230 mesh, with the oversize reporting to the first of two polishing scrubbers.

First cleaner flotation concentrate is screened at 80 mesh (177µm), with the oversize reporting to the second polishing scrubber ahead of column flotation. The screen undersize is thickened prior to attrition scrubbing and column flotation. Final cleaner concentrate from both circuits is combined, thickened and press filtered to serve as feed for the purification step.

The purification plant is a secondary processing stage that enables the production of speciality graphite products and will include micronization, spheronization, purification, and coating processes. The process will not include the use of hazardous reagents such as hydrofluoric acid (HF) or sodium hydroxide (NaOH), but rather is based on a new continuous carbo-chlorination process with internal recycling of the chlorine gas and capture of the graphite impurities as solid oxides.