Mining
Sovereign installs graphite spiral plant in Lilongwe
October 04, 2024 / Modester Mwalija
By Modester Mwalija
AXS-listed Sovereign Metals, which is prospecting for rutile and graphite in Kasiya area in Lilongwe has announced that it has successfully installed and commissioned an industrial-scale spiral concentrator plant at its laboratory and testing facility in Lilongwe, Malawi.
Sovereign MD Frank Eagar announces this in a statement saying the plant enables Sovereign to process material from the test pit mined as part of the Pilot Mining and Land Rehabilitation (Pilot Phase) at the Kasiya Rutile-Graphite Project.
Eagar says: “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.”
He explains that 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 specialized laboratories for flotation, purification, spheronisation and coating testwork for the battery anode segment in line with Sovereign’s strategy to commercialize Kasiya’s graphite by-product.
This follows the Company’s recent announcement that downstream test work 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.
The Kasiya process flowsheet is separated into distinct simple processing areas, namely Wet Concentrator Plant (WCP) and Mineral Separation Plant (MSP)
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.
At the MSP, the HMC will initially undergo electrostatic separation through a CoronaStat Electric Separator 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.
Eagar explains that 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,” states Eagar.
Meanwhile, the Company has also announced that its Kasiya graphite concentrate is confirmed to be an excellent feedstock for natural graphite anode materials suitable for battery production.
Eager says that CSPG anode material produced from Kasiya graphite concentrate has performance characteristics comparable to the highest quality natural graphite battery material produced by dominant Chinese anode manufacturers.
“Electrochemical testing achieved very high first cycle efficiencies ranging from 94.2% to 95.8%, which supports long battery life. Additionally, there was excellent initial discharge capacities exceeding 360mAh/g, meeting the highest standards for natural graphite anode materials. The material also exhibited a very low specific area (BET) of ≤2.0m2/g minimizing lithium loss during the first battery charging cycle along with excellent tap densities of 1.11 to 1.18g/cm3 which allows for higher electrical storage,” says Eagar
He attributes the unique anode material results to the unique geological setting of the highly weathered Kasiya orebody compared to fresh rock hosted graphite deposits, including high purity of the natural flake, near perfect crystallinity, and very low levels of Sulphur and other impurities.
Combining its results as one of the largest graphite resources globally, industry low operating costs and lowest global warming potential, Kasiya is presenting significant advantages over its graphite peers, positioning it with highest potential to become a dominant source of graphite supply ex-China.
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Rehabilitation:
The establishment of a stable and self-sustaining ecosystem, but not necessarily the one that existed before mining began. In many cases, complete restoration may be impossible, but successful remediation, reclamation, and rehabilitation can result in the timely establishment of a functional ecosystem.
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Remediation:
The cleanup of the contaminated area to safe levels by removing or isolating contaminants. At mine sites, remediation often consists of isolating contaminated material in pre-existing tailings storage facilities, capping tailings and waste rock stockpiles with clean topsoil, and collecting and treating any contaminated mine water if necessary.
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