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ReGIonAL RoUnDUP AFRIcA

BlackEarth revs up for more testing

hen COVID-19 infections around the
Wworld began to spike earlier this year
and countries such as Madagascar started
closing their borders, BlackEarth Miner-
als Ltd managing director Tom Revy had a
heart-in-mouth moment.
A shipment carrying about 60t of graphit-
ic material from BlackEarth’s Maniry pro-
ject was due to leave Madagascar for the
BGRIMM testing facilities in China. It was
considered one of the most important de-
liveries in the company’s short history given
the results of the planned laboratory tests
would ultimately be fed into an upcoming
BFS.
With international travel restrictions sud-
denly implemented in a bid to slow the
spread of COVID-19, Revy could have
been forgiven for thinking the shipment
might not make it into China. Fortunately, BlackEarth managing director Tom Revy (pictured left) on site at the Maniry graphite project in
those concerns were quickly alleviated and southern Madagascar
a three-month pilot programme to test the
sample will soon be under way.
That test work has since become even Revy said the BGRIMM testwork would and the variability that was contained in the
more vital with BlackEarth recently signing help to validate RHI’s required product material in the ground. Then it was to un-
a binding offtake MoU with Tier 1 refractory specifications and allow both parties to derstand what the offtakers wanted, what
producer RHI Magnesita. Under the MoU, advance the terms and conditions of the products were in demand and what was be-
BlackEarth will work with Austria-based agreement. ing projected as high-demand, high-value
RHI to explore opportunities to produce “Like a lot of graphite producers, we’re products in the future.
tailor-made natural graphite concentrate held by confidentiality in terms of what the “Then we did metallurgical test work to
samples and products using material from detail of the offtake arrangements are, but make sure that based on our understand-
Maniry. suffice to say they are binding in terms of ing of the material in the ground and the
“We’ve stated since day one our aim moving to the next stage,” he said. specifications needed in the marketplace
was to work with Tier 1 companies and to “Everyone is focused on what is required that we could match the two together and
that extent that also encompasses offtake,” in order to formulate a formal sales offtake have a robust flowsheet which could pro-
Revy told Paydirt after announcing the arrangement and to that end some broad- duce those specifications on a medium to
MoU in August. based terms and conditions have already long-term basis.”
“The banks and equity markets take been agreed to.” Revy said restrictions on regional travel
greater comfort when they see you deal- BlackEarth’s testwork so far has con- in Madagascar had limited the company’s
ing with a quality company because it gives firmed that graphitic material from Maniry is ability to undertake some work on the
them greater comfort in terms of decreas- suitable for anode production in the battery Maniry project, located in the south of the
ing the risk on the revenue side. It’s always market, but it is the medium-sized material island nation, but he did not believe Black-
tough to get offtake arrangements with Tier ideal for the refractory industry which the Earth had been adversely impacted by the
1s because obviously they’re bombarded company is especially targeting in this up- shutdowns implemented to slow the spread
by both up-and-coming and current pro- coming programme. of the coronavirus.
ducers for product sales, but that didn’t de- Coarse material for fire-retardant and foil “The Government is doing its best. It has
ter us. We understood it takes a long time production in the expandables market is quarantined people, they’ve basically re-
and there’s perhaps more red tape involved also part of the company’s potential product stricted movement within the major cities,
in getting there. suite. they’ve had curfews, etc to minimise the
“We have now tested our material fairly Revy said the company’s commitment to impact,” Revy said.
extensively and we are comfortable both testing had put it in a strong position ahead “I think in reality they’re no different com-
from an offtaker testing and independent of the scheduled completion of a BFS on ing out of this any faster or later than most
laboratory testing point of view that our Maniry during the first half of next year. other sub-Saharan countries. As for the
products will fit into three main categories.” “Everything we’ve done has been, I think impact on us, we would like to do some
RHI is a leading supplier of high-grade it’s fair to say, Rolls Royce,” Revy said. more drilling once regional travel is permit-
refractory products, systems and solutions “The aim was to understand the variabil- ted because we already have the drill rigs
which are critical for high-temperature pro- ity in material which historically has been a there. We would like to drill the higher grade
cesses in a wide range of industries such challenge to some operations in terms of north-west area as part of the BFS and in-
as steel, cement, non-ferrous metals and producing a consistent product to the speci- corporate those results into the final data.”
glass. fications of their off-takers. Our first stage – Michael Washbourne
was to understand what was in the ground

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