ASX- and Aim-listed Sovereign Metals has achieved “outstanding” results from purification testing of coarse flake graphite concentrate from its Kasiya rutile/graphite project, in Malawi, for applications requiring a higher-grade product, such as powder metallurgy, isostatically-pressed refractory products and high-grade expandables.
These applications typically require less than 1% ash in coarse flake graphite, that is, a loss of ignition (LoI) purity of more than 99%.
Sovereign engaged ProGraphite to conduct the testwork using coarse (>180-micron) flake graphite from Kasiya and to investigate acid and alkaline purification alternatives under conditions typically used to achieve the greater-than-99% LoI target.
Purification of Kasiya coarse flake achieved 99.95% LoI purity using acid purification and 99.98% LoI purity using alkaline purification.
“These are truly outstanding results – effectively achieving battery-grade purities of +99% and less than 0.05% ash under conditions that typically result in under 1% ash.
“For our future customers, this has the potential to significantly reduce reagent consumption and waste generation in the production of high-purity flake or targeted high-end applications,” CEO and MD Frank Eagar says.
This is yet further confirmation that Kasiya graphite concentrate is a premium graphite suitable for the anode, refractory, expandables and now also the high-purity powder metallurgy markets.
“We are delighted with the significant commercial optionality it brings to the Kasiya rutile and graphite project,” he adds. 