Orom-Cross is a poten al world class graphite project both by size and end-product quality, with a high component of more valuable larger flakes within the deposit. A 21-year Mining Licence for the project was issued by the Ugandan Government in 2019 following extensive historical work on the deposit and following delivery of excep onal metallurgy test results (July 2021 and an outstanding Preliminary Economic Assessment (September 2021) Blencowe is moving into the Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) stage as it drives towards first produc on.
Orom-Cross is a large, shallow open pitable deposit, with an es mated overall resource between 2-3 billion tonnes of graphite with 16.3Mt already drilled to JORC Resource standard, covering an ini al 13-year life of mine. Development of the resource is expected to benefit from a low strip ra o and free dig opera ons thereby ensuring lower opera ng and capital costs.
Blencowe’s Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for Orom-Cross presents the project as low-cost with robust financials and the Company is confident that Project economics can improve further, notably by extending the life of mine and/or increasing the levels of produc on. The September 2021 PEA delivered an NPV8 of US$317M and IRR 49% with an average nameplate produc on of 75,000tpa graphite sold as concentrate, with ability to extend this a er further drilling.