Name of the Project
Woxna graphite anode project.

Location
Near the town of Edsbyn, in Ovanåker municipality, Gävleborg County, in Sweden.

Project Owner/s
Leading Edge Materials.

Project Description
The preliminary economic assessment (PEA) has indicated the potential viability of a Swedish operation producing battery-grade graphite anode material using an existing graphite mine and concentrator at the Kringel deposits, with the addition of a value-add processing facility off site.

Conventional openpit drill-and-blast, combined with truck-and-shovel mining methods, have been selected to be operated by a local specialist mining contractor to maximise the operational efficiency, provide flexibility and potentially lower investment risk to the project. The existing processing plant at the project’s Kringel deposit and mine location are planned to be used to produce a graphite concentrate product.

The PEA includes capital expenditure for minor upgrades of the plant to improve the quality of the concentrate produced. The exist­ing rod mill comminution circuit should be complemented with a new crushing plant, crushed material stockpile and rod mill classifier.

The material will be beneficiated in a proven flotation circuit, which will be further upgraded with additional flotation cells, vertical mills, dewatering cyclones and clarifiers to improve on the carbon grade of the final graphite concentrate product.

Life-of-mine (LoM) average plant feed is estimated at 159 967 t/y, coated spherical purified graphite at 7 435 t/y and micronised graphite product at 8 421 t/y.

The project has a LoM of 15 years.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value of $317-million, at an 8% discount rate, and an internal rate of return 42.9%, with a payback of 2.24 years from first production.

Capital Expenditure
Initial capital expenditure is estimated at $121-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
None stated.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Zenito (PEA) and Minviro (life-cycle assessment).

Contact Details for Project Information
Leading Edge Materials, email info@leadingedgematerials.com.