REG - Sovereign Metals Ltd - Spiral Plant Successfully Installed

Sovereign MetalsAnnouncement

18/09/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 5986E  Sovereign Metals Limited  18 September 2024

 

 

 

 

NEWS RELEASE I 18 SEPTEMBER 2024

SPIRAL PLANT SUCCESSFULLY INSTALLED FOR GRAPHITE OFFTAKE DISCUSSIONS

·  Industrial scale spiral concentrator plant successfully installed and
commissioned at Sovereign's expanded laboratory and testing facility in
Lilongwe, Malawi

·    Graphite pre-concentrate from spiral plant will facilitate ongoing
testwork and offtake discussions with lithium-ion battery makers and
traditional graphite markets

·  Spiral plant commissioning commenced with material from the Pilot Phase
test pit being processed at a throughput rate of up to 3 tonnes per hour for
continuous sample preparation

·   The spiral installed and commissioned is the identical model selected
for the Wet Concentrator Plant per the simple 2023 Kasiya pre-feasibility
study (PFS) process flowsheet

·    Commissioning and subsequent use of spiral plant also provides
Malawian employee training in industrial scale processing prior to full-scale
operations

·    Sovereign is targeting a market-leading position as the world's
largest and lowest-cost producer of rutile for the titanium industry and flake
graphite for the lithium-ion battery market

·

Sovereign Metals Limited (ASX: SVM; AIM: SVML; OTCQX: SVMLF) (Sovereign or the
Company) is pleased to announce that it has successfully installed and
commissioned an industrial-scale spiral concentrator plant at the Company's
laboratory and testing facility in Lilongwe, Malawi.

The plant enables Sovereign to process material from the test pit mined as
part of the Pilot Mining and Land Rehabilitation (Pilot Phase) at its Kasiya
Rutile-Graphite Project (Kasiya or Project).

Managing Director Frank Eagar commented: "The new infrastructure allows
Sovereign to deliver large-scale graphite pre-concentrate for qualification by
its future potential customers. With a simple and conventional process
flowsheet, Kasiya ore is processed at a throughput rate of up to 3 tonnes per
hour for continuous sample preparation. Our PFS optimisation continues to
advance as planned with oversight from the Sovereign-Rio Tinto Technical
Committee."

The spiral plant will prepare a graphite gravity concentrate from the Pilot
Phase test pit's run of mine at a bulk scale. The concentrate will then be
sent to specialised laboratories where flotation, purification, spheronisation
and coating testwork for the battery anode segment in line with Sovereign's
strategy to commercialise Kasiya's graphite by-product.

This follows the Company's recent announcement that downstream testwork
performed by a leading independent consultancy had demonstrated that Coated
Spherical Purified Graphite (CSPG) produced from Kasiya natural flake graphite
has performance characteristics comparable to leading Chinese natural graphite
anode materials manufacturers (See Company Announcement dated 4 September
2024).

Graphite concentrate will also be provided to traditional industrial graphite
users, including refractories, foundries, expandable graphite, graphite foil,
brake lining pads, and lubrication.

 

Figure 1: Installed Spiral plant at Sovereign's Lilongwe facility

 

Figure 2: Commencement of spiral commissioning

Kasiya Process Flowsheet

The Kasiya process flowsheet is separated into distinct simple processing
areas.

Wet Concentrator Plant (WCP)

 

The WCP will receive mined material pre-screened at 2mm to remove oversize.
Simple gravity separation through spirals will produce a Heavy Mineral
Concentrate (HMC) and a separate gravity tailings stream enriched in graphite.
The spiral installed and commissioned is the identical model selected for the
Wet Concentrator Plant per the 2023 Kasiya PFS process flowsheet. It will have
the same throughput capacity as a spiral in the designed plant.

 

Mineral Separation Plant (MSP)

 

At the MSP, the HMC will initially undergo electrostatic separation to
separate heavy minerals into electrically conductive minerals including
rutile, and non-conductive minerals. Magnetic separation will then isolate
rutile, which is non-magnetic, from other conductive minerals. Sovereign
recently installed and is commissioning a CoronaStat Electric Separator at its
facility in Lilongwe. This unit has been supplied by OreKinetics Pty Ltd which
has also supplied the majority of electrostatic separators to the mineral
sands industry over the last 20 years.

 

Figure 3: CoronaStat Electric Separator at Sovereign's Lilongwe facility
clearly showing non-conductive material on left-hand-side and conductive
minerals including rutile on right-hand-side

Figure 4: Bench-scale magnetic separator at Sovereign's Lilongwe facility
separating non-magnetic rutile from other conductive minerals

Graphite Plant

 

The graphite tailings stream collected from the gravity spirals will be
processed through froth flotation, including polishing and stirred media
mills, producing a coarse-flake graphite concentrate and tailings.

 

Tailings storage and management will be further refined as part of the ongoing
Kasiya PFS Optimisation Study.

 

ENQUIRIES

Frank Eagar (South Africa/Malawi)

CEO & Managing Director

+27 21 065 1890

 

Sapan Ghai (London)

CCO

+44 207 478 3900

 

 Nominated Adviser on AIM and Joint Broker
 SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP             +44 20 3470 0470
 Ewan Leggat

 Charlie Bouverat

 Joint Brokers
 Stifel                                     +44 20 7710 7600
 Varun Talwar
 Ashton Clanfield

 Berenberg                                  +44 20 3207 7800
 Matthew Armitt
 Jennifer Lee

 Buchanan                                   + 44 20 7466 5000

 

Forward Looking Statement

This release may include forward-looking statements, which may be identified
by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "projects", "plans",
and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on
Sovereign's expectations and beliefs concerning future events. Forward looking
statements are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors,
many of which are outside the control of Sovereign, which could cause actual
results to differ materially from such statements. There can be no assurance
that forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Sovereign makes no
undertaking to subsequently update or revise the forward-looking statements
made in this release, to reflect the circumstances or events after the date of
that release.

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