iTech Minerals’ busy quarter headlined by 300% resource increase at Eyre Peninsula graphite project

iTech Minerals (ASX: ITM) has described the three months to June as a “very busy quarter” at its flagship developments in the Northern Territory and South Australia.

Earlier this month, the company announced a 300% increase to the global measured, indicated and inferred mineral resource estimate at its wholly-owned Eyre Peninsula graphite project after completing one of the largest drilling programs to date at its Lacroma deposit.

Eyre Peninsula upgrade

The new estimate for Eyre Peninsula stands at 35.2 million tonnes grading 6% total graphitic carbon (TGC) at a minimum 2% cutoff, representing a significant boost from the previous total of 8.55Mt at 9% TGC (5% cutoff) reported in 2021.

Approximately 65% of the new resource estimate is in the higher-confidence “measured” and “indicated” categories.

The resource upgrade is believed to have helped the company achieve its goal of adding significant new graphite resources to the project with the right mix of metallurgical properties and geology to allow for potentially low-risk processing into battery anode material for the lithium-ion market.

Lacroma tests

Also in July, metallurgical consultant METS Engineering used bulk flotation tests to deliver a 94% graphite concentrate from Lacroma graphite feedstock.

The recoveries were achieved using conditions determined in the first round of bench-scale optimisation testing, using conventional graphite flotation processes without additional chemical or thermal purification techniques.

iTech said the use of a conventional industry-standard flowsheet with high recoveries was conducive to a potential low-cost graphite processing operation.

The Lacroma deposit is located approximately 20 kilometres southwest of Kimba on the central Eyre Peninsula and a similar distance from iTech’s proposed graphite processing plant for the Campoona spherical graphite project.

Reynolds Range visit

Exploration commenced at iTech’s Reynolds Range project with a site visit in June by managing director Mike Schwarz and fellow director Gary Ferris to confirm the copper-gold potential identified in a recent review of historical data.

The trip covered the full 70km strike of the Lander Shear Zone covered by the tenement package, which comprises the Scimitar, Reward, Sabre, Falchion and Troutbeck prospects.

The directors also visited the historical Mt Stafford tin mine to determine if the pegmatites that host the tin mineralisation also have potential to host lithium.

They collected 29 samples from numerous pegmatites that demonstrated the correct mineralogy and will submit them for multi-element analysis.

Exploration expenditure

iTech spent $787,000 during the quarter on exploration and resource drilling programs at the Eyre Peninsula project.

The expenditure covered assaying, travel, site access, site rehabilitation and labour, as well as tenement maintenance costs and metallurgical studies.

The company made payments totalling $85,000 to related parties, including director fees to executive and non-executive directors.

iTech had a cash balance of $1.73 million at the end of the period.