By Deep Earth
Blencowe Resources jumped 5 per cent to 3.4p on the London Stock Exchange on June 23, 2022 following the excellent progress the company made at its Orom-Cross graphite project in Kitgum, northern Uganda earlier this month.
At the start of June, Blencowe Resources announced that recent area studies of the Orom flake graphite concentrate provided impressive results that will “generate significant interest.”
Production of the ASTM flake graphite grades is planned from 2023 onwards.
The Orom project has a unique ore body composition with specific element content that is unequal to other graphite projects, the company said.
Over the coming months, Blencowe announced, additional processing work for new potential applications for Orom-Cross graphite products will be completed.
The work will support the progressive sales and marketing strategy, focusing on both traditional and advanced graphite applications, including both primary and secondary battery markets, where demand for qualified graphite products is expected to grow.
Cameron Pearce, the Executive Chairman of Blencowe Resources, noted that the latest results continued to underline the potential for Orom-Cross to deliver some of the highest quality graphite concentrate into world markets ahead as the company transitioned to first production from 2023.
“End users are very discerning as to the quality of product they are seeking, hence these results are particularly encouraging in that our product can meet their high expectations, and thus provide our project with a strong base of customers to sell into as we start selling graphite from next year,” he said.
Pearce further noted that Orom-Cross was shaping up to become a world class graphite project in all respects; with considerable size and scale to expand as necessary.
“We are well positioned to meet anticipated strong future demand, high quality concentrate to sell our products into various markets, low operations costs due to low strip ratio and other key advantages, and a good mix of flake sizes that guarantees a high overall weighted average selling price. We look forward to sharing these parameters with the market via our pre-feasibility study, which is due for completion shortly,” he said.
In February this year, Blencowe agreed to buy the entire interest of Sipa Resources in the Akelikongo nickel-copper project also found in Kitgum, northern Uganda.
The UK firm is looking to become a big time African player in the battery market as the future of fossil fuels increasingly comes under scrutiny.
Many countries have set targets to stop using fossil fuels in preference to electric cars. Criticism from environmentalists against fossil fuels has also become louder.
It is some of these sentiments that Blencowe is riding on to impose its footprint in the battery market through the development of projects with key base metals such as nickel-copper and graphite.
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