Name of the Project
Kasiya rutile/graphite project.

Location
Central Malawi.

Project Owner/s
Sovereign Metals and Rio Tinto.

Rio Tinto invested in Sovereign in July 2023, resulting in an initial 15% shareholding and options, and expiring within 12 months of initial investment, to increase its position to 19.99%. Under the investment agreement, Rio Tinto will provide assistance and advice on technical and marketing aspects of Kasiya, including on Sovereign’s graphite co-product, with a primary focus on spherical purified graphite for the lithium-ion battery anode market.

Project Description
Kasiya is the biggest natural rutile deposit and second-largest flake graphite deposit in the world. The project has an inferred resource of 609-million tonnes grading 0.9% rutile and 1.1% graphite, for total contained tonnages of 5.7-million and 6.5-million for the two minerals respectively.

A prefeasibility study has confirmed a potentially major critical minerals project, with an extremely low carbon dioxide footprint delivering significant volumes of natural rutile and graphite while generating significant economic returns.

The proposed large-scale operation will process 24-million tonnes of ore a year to produce an estimated 245 000 t of natural rutile and 288 000 t of natural graphite a year at steady state, for an initial mine life of 25 years.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an after-tax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of $1.61-billion and an internal rate of return of 28%, with a payback of 4.3 years from the start of production.

Capital Expenditure
Capital costs to first production are estimated at $597-million. Expansion capital is estimated at $287-million.

Planed Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Sovereign Metals has confirmed that Kasiya can be efficiently mined using conventional dry mining techniques and a mobile excavator fleet.

The miner reported in July 2024 that it had successfully completed a dry mining trial, which involved a test pit excavation for pilot mining and a land rehabilitation programme.

The test pit covers a 120 m × 110 m, which has been excavated at a depth of 20 m using four excavators, 20 trucks and a support fleet of bulldozers and a motor grader.

The completion of the test pit at this scale marks a significant achievement, with valuable mining, hydrology and geotechnical data having been collected to understand the orebody, Sovereign MD Frank Eagar has said.

The data confirms that no drilling, blasting, crushing, grinding or milling will be required before stockpiling material for processing into rutile and graphite products, which Eager has said is an indication of potentially lower mining costs and a lower carbon footprint, comparable to those of hard-rock deposits.

The company will next undertake a hydraulic mining trial, cyclone separation of ore, the backfilling of test pits and soil rehabilitation.

Sovereign has built a temporary water storage pond sealed with natural clay from excavated material, which minimises the use of conventional plastic lining. The pond is being filled through eight boreholes delivering water to site and is nearing its capacity of six-million litres.

This water will be used for the hydraulic mining stage.

Soon after mining, the company aims to restore land conditions that will result in achieving the same or better agriculture yield than existing land uses and crop yields.

Trial work is also informing an upcoming definitive feasibility study.

Key Contracts, Suppliers, and Consultants
SocialEssence (continued development of Sovereign’s stakeholder relations, social performance objectives and its CSR framework).

Contact Details for Project Information
Sovereign Metals, Tel +61 8 9322 6322, or email info@sovereignmetals.com.au.