Overview

Deposit type

• Saprolite

Summary:

The Malingunde Deposit comprises 4.5km strike length of shallowly north-east dipping, north-west striking graphitic gneisses. The mineralised package has up to six separate sub-parallel zones of graphite gneiss with cumulative across strike widths averaging 120m and locally exceeding 200m. The newly discovered Msinja Deposit, located 1.5km along strike to the south-east has a strike length of approximately 1.0km with about five parallel zones of mineralisation. Across strike cumulative widths of mineralisation range between 40 and 100m.

The host rocks at Malingunde have been subject to intense weathering under tropical climatic conditions. This has resulted in development of substantial thicknesses of saprolite and other weathered facies. A typical profile from surface is soil (“SOIL”, 0-1m), ferruginous pedolith (“FERP”, 1-4m), mottled zone (“MOTT”, 4-7m), pallid saprolite (“PSAP”, 7-9m), saprolite (“SAPL”, 9-25m), saprock (“SAPR”, 25-35m) and fresh rock (“FRESH” >35m). In some areas, a thin lateritic duricrust is present within the FERP, though this rarely exceeds 1m in thickness.

Flake graphite mineralisation occurs within graphitic gneiss units that are interlayered and separated locally by barren or low-grade biotite-kyanite +/- graphite gneisses. Mineralisation is broadly conformable with the host paragneiss sequence, striking north-west and dipping at 10-40° to the north-east. The graphitic gneisses of central Malawi are very coarse-grained resulting in a graphite flake distribution in concentrates of generally >60% +150um. This is likely because of the very high metamorphic grade (granulite facies) and long cooling period experienced by the host rock package allowing large flakes time to crystallise.

Graphite is generally chemically inert during the weathering process and in most of the weathering zones the flakes remain pristine. However, in the SOIL and FERP zones graphite grades are highly depleted, with very little material above 4% TGC occurring. Grades may also be slightly depleted in the MOTT zone. Recovered flake sizes are decreased significantly in the FERP zone and somewhat in the MOTT zones as opposed to the bulk SAPL zone. This is thought to be a result of physical reworking and some volume reduction in the upper levels with associated dilution and natural flake comminution.

Dimensions
The Malingunde Deposit comprises 4,500 m strike length of shallowly north-east dipping, north-west striking graphitic gneisses. The mineralised package has up to six separate sub-parallel zones of graphite gneiss with cumulative across strike widths averaging 120 m and locally exceeding 200 m. The Msinja Deposit has a strike length of approximately 1.0 km with about five parallel zones of mineralisation. Across strike cumulative widths range between 40 and 100 m. The depth extent of the MRE is approximately 50 m although the mineralisation is believed to extend considerably deeper, but is not considered as an exploration target at this stage.

Mining Methods

• Truck & Shovel / Loader

Summary:

The proposed mining method is a conventional truck and shovel mining operation. Free dig mining is considered appropriate for this style of shallow, saprolite-hosted graphite mineralisation. This methodology is used throughout the region for open pit mining operations and is a robust, easily implementable approach.

Zero dilution factor was assumed and is warranted because the majority of the high-grade production target mineralisation is bounded by lower grade mineralisation, and, the free digging, non-blocky nature of the material would result in no displacement by blasting. An allowance of 2% ore loss was applied to account for mining inaccuracies.

A contract mining strategy was selected for the initial eight years to mitigate project risk. An owner-operator model is adopted from Year 9 onwards.

The proposed mining method requires conventional mining infrastructure including but not limited to mining equipment workshop, fuel & oil storage facilities, wash bay, offices, lunch and ablution facilities and a first aid room. These are to be supplied by the mining contractor.

As there is no anticipated requirement for blasting, no infrastructure is required for explosives storage.

The deposit is planned to be mined on 2.5m high benches to maximise mining selectivity and therefore minimise dilution.

A minimum mining width of 20m was used for all pit designs.

The mine schedule is based on achievable production rates for the specified size of mining fleet with only a single shift per day required.

The risk around any geotechnical uncertainty is mitigated by:
• The pits are relatively shallow, being a maximum of ~30m below surface.
• Sensitivity to slope angles was assessed during the optimisation phase and showed the deposit discounted value was insensitive (less than -4%) to changes in slope parameters.
• The nature of the deposit and the small scale and low strip ratio of the mining stages will enable access to other areas of the deposit in the event a mining area is inaccessible.

There is significant opportunity to increase the mine life beyond 16 years by processing lower grade material from the large resource base, or by discovering additional high-grade resources within reasonable trucking distance to the proposed processing plant.

The total Production Target of 9.5Mt run-of-mine (to produce approximately 830kt of concentrate) is underpinned by Proved Ore Reserves of 3.1Mt (32%) and Probable Ore Reserves of 6.4Mt (68%).

A schedule was developed that progressively mines material from the northern-west zones 1 and 2, then the central zones 3 and 4 and finally the south-east zone 5. A three month pre-strip of 190kt of waste is required in order to provide sufficient material to construct the initial TSF. The life of mine strip ratio is 1:1 waste:ore including the capitalised pre-strip.

Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Processing

• Crush & Screen plant
• Attrition
• Flotation
• Dewatering

Summary:

The design of the processing plant is based on the test-work and best practice in similar operations. Importantly, the process requires no primary crushing or grinding of the ore, a material advantage over hard-rock graphite deposits. The high-grade feed stock of 9.5% TGC over the life of the project assists in achieving the very low processing costs.

The basic flowsheet is summarised below:

- The plant feed will be delivered from the ROM run-of-mine stockpile (ROM) by front-end-loader (FEL) to the grizzly and ROM bin.

- Material is passed through a mineral sizer for primary size reduction.

- Plant feed at 100% -20 mm is processed through a scrubber charged with steel media.

- The scrubber discharge slurry is passed through a 10 mm screen with a small quantity (0-15%) oversize being directed to a small pebble crusher.

- The scrubber undersize is pumped to the rougher flotation section for processing. Rougher tailings are pumped to the tailing’s thickener.

- Rougher concentrate undergoes a polishing regrind.

- The ground concentrate undergoes cleaner flotation stages with the cleaner concentrate split into coarse and fine fractions at 180 µm.

- Attritioning on the coarse and fine fractions followed by three stages of recleaner flotation.

- The final concentrate fractions +180 µm (+80 mesh) and -180 µm (-80 mesh) streams streams are combined and thickened.

The high-grade feed stock of 9.5% TGC over the life of the project assists in achieving the very low processing costs.

Overall average flotation recovery of 90% has been used. Overall concentrate grades average 97% C.

- The concentrate is dewatered using a plate and frame filter and air blow and membrane squeeze steps.

- The filtered concentrate is dried using a flash dryer.

- Dried product is screened and bagged for despatch and sale.

Water Supply

Summary:

Water is relatively plentiful in the immediate area and the project will be able to source sufficient water from within the project area, predominantly as part of the pit dewatering requirements.

The baseline work for the hydrogeological studies indicates an approximately uniform hydrogeological environment, with boreholes producing between 1-2 m3/h. However, two of the boreholes, have sustainable yields in excess of 5 m3/h. The numerical modelling work has shown that for the pits, the cone of drawdown is at a maximum extent at the end of mining period (16 years) and recovers rapidly thereafter. After year 16, the residual drawdown is below 1m, with an aerial extent which decreases with time, indicating full recovery.

In terms of water balance, it is expected the project will require an additional ~20,000m3 per month during each nine-month dry season for the first two years of operation.

Production

Operational metrics

Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
Consultant - Costs	Matt Langridge		Apr 12, 2023
Consultant - Costs	John Riordan		Apr 12, 2023
Consultant - Recovery Methods	Oliver Peters		Apr 12, 2023
Executive Director & CEO	Matthew Syme		Jan 25, 2025
Exploration Manager	Sam Moyle		Jan 25, 2025