Exploration and development company Kingsland Minerals has appointed GR Engineering Services (GRES) to lead a scoping study for its Leliyn graphite project in Australia’s Northern Territory.

The study, expected to be completed in the December quarter, will evaluate the economics of producing fine flake graphite concentrate at the project, located near Pine Creek. Kingsland has also named metallurgist and corporate manager Michael Rodriguez as project manager to oversee the effort.

“This is a crucial step in the development of the Leliyn graphite project,” said Kingsland MD Richard Maddocks. “We are very pleased to be working with GR Engineering Services to assess the potential of this project. GRES has considerable global experience in the delivery of scoping and feasibility studies and the design and construction of processing facilities. They also have particular expertise in the design of graphite processing infrastructure.”

Maddocks added that Rodriguez's appointment represents an “important milestone” for the company. “Michael has extensive experience in project design studies, implementation and construction. His appointment is an important milestone as Kingsland builds up internal expertise to develop Leliyn into a graphite mine.”

Alongside the appointment, Kingsland announced that executive director Nick Revell will step down from his executive duties on May 30, but will remain on the board in a nonexecutive role. Revell was instrumental in securing the company’s current project portfolio.

The scoping study will be based on Kingsland’s recently upgraded mineral resource estimate for Leliyn, which includes 12.3-million tonnes of indicated resources at 7.9% total graphitic carbon (TGC), and 180.2-million tonnes of inferred resources at 7.2% TGC. The study will incorporate metallurgical testwork by Independent Metallurgical Operations and mine planning by Auralia Mining Consulting.

The company says the current indicated resources form only a small portion of the total resource, and pending a positive outcome of the study, additional drilling is planned to expand this category and support advanced mine planning.

Kingsland has a graphite offtake agreement in place with Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, which will purchase concentrate from Leliyn for downstream processing into battery components and other value-added graphite products in Australia and abroad.