Renascor Resources ups Siviour graphite resource by 25%, considers further expansion

Renascor Resources (ASX: RNU) has increased the size of Australia’s largest graphite deposit, which is also the world’s second biggest in size and the largest outside Africa.

The Siviour deposit, located on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula and inland from Arno Bay, has had its resource upgraded by 25%, now standing at 123.6 million tonnes at 6.9% total graphitic carbon (TGC) for 8.4Mt of contained graphite.

Some 61% of that resource is now in the measured or indicated category.

Siviour is located on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, inland from Arno Bay.

Upgraded resource paves way for expansion

Renascor says the upgraded mineral resource estimate is expected to provide support for further extensions and potential optimisation to the current pit design.

Siviour consists of three stages.

There is the mining operation, with production to continue over a 40-year mine life with open pit extraction.

The company will also build a concentrator using conventional crush, grind, and float processing.

Then comes the Battery Anode Material (BAM) production facility which will provide an export business selling to lithium-ion battery manufacturers.

Competitive cost structure

Renascor recently completed a BAM study which estimated that the Siviour ore body can deliver a globally competitive gross operating cost for purified spherical graphite of US$1,782 per tonne over the first 10 years of mining, and US$1,846/t over the entire mine life.

Managing director David Christensen said the resource upgrade offers continued evidence of the world class quality of the Siviour deposit.

“As the demand for graphite grows, long-life, high quality sources of new supply like Siviour are becoming increasingly important to the developing lithium-ion battery supply chain,” he added.

Big week for graphite upgrades

Earlier this week, International Graphite (ASX: IG6) — with Australia’s second largest graphite deposit — reported tripling of its Springdale resource.

Springdale, in Western Australia, now stands at 49.3Mt at 6.5% TGC.

The previous mineral estimate came in at 15.3Mt and 6% TGC.

More than 10% of the new resource is due to the discovery of Mason Bay deposit, 2km east of the main Springvale site.