26 Sept 2022                 
Blencowe Resources Plc
(“Blencowe” or the “Company“)

Highlights

• Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) commences with target completion date 2H-2023.
• Engagement with specialist graphite engineering firm to manage the DFS.
• Blencowe currently reviewing various options for strategic alliances in key areas within the Orom-Cross project, including;
• Offtake
• Funding
• EPC (Engineering, procurement and construction of plant)

Blencowe Resources Plc (“Blencowe Resources” or the “Company”) (LSE: BRES) is pleased to announce that it has commenced the Definitive Feasibility Study for its flagship Orom-Cross graphite project located in Uganda, East Africa. 

This follows outstanding Pre-Feasibility Study results (NPV8 US$482M: IRR8 49%) as presented to the market in July 2022, which have prompted the Company to move quickly on to this next stage of project development.  The DFS is the last step in terms of major studies prior to the board making a decision to mine.

Blencowe is currently in the final stages of a process to select an experienced independent engineering firm to manage and ultimately sign off on the DFS. The Company anticipates announcing the engineering partner in the near term.

The Company is also assembling a strong management advisory team to assist with all key aspects of the study, including plant design, engineering, infrastructure, mining, operations, sales and marketing (offtake), environmental and social aspects, and all project funding.  This team will comprise of resource executives who have considerable experience delivering projects through to production in Africa, as well as specific graphite experience.  They will assist the existing Blencowe management team at all levels to deliver a successful DFS.

Metallurgical test work already completed in both Canada and Australia indicates that Orom-Cross can produce several high-quality end products as a 96-97% LOI concentrate. Additional metallurgical test work is anticipated in 2023, as part of the DFS, to test the expandability, spheroidisation and spherical graphite purification (SPG) properties, as the ability to cost-effectively further upgrade Orom-Cross concentrates is expected to add significant additional value to the project.

The Company will continue to keep the market informed of progress as key milestones within the DFS process are completed.

Cameron Pearce, Executive Chairman commented;

“We continue to make substantial progress at Orom-Cross, having moved from project acquisition through JORC Resource drilling and Pre-Feasibility Studies and now into the Definitive Feasibility Study stage, all within just 2.5 years.  The quality and value of Orom-Cross graphite continues to inspire us to move as quickly as possible towards a decision to mine but at the same time we are ensuring all key areas are thoroughly analysed including third party reviews by industry experts.  Quality and consistency of end product remain critical to building strong buyer relationships and we will continue to test the properties of our graphite as necessary to ensure our product is considered at the highest levels compared to other graphite products available worldwide.  This is an ongoing exercise but more end product value is being added at each stage.”

He added “Graphite demand is growing fast as forecast and as the market becomes increasingly more aware that there are very few new graphite mines scheduled to commence production in the near term this demand-pull will potentially drive further price rises ahead, particularly for the products found at Orom-Cross.  Blencowe owns 100% of one of the largest, high-quality graphite projects in the world and is therefore uniquely placed and significantly leveraged to take advantage of this emerging market moving forward.”