Mr. Russell McCarley of SRG reports

SRG GRAPHITE REPORTS ON LATEST METALLURGICAL AND EXPANDABLE GRAPHITE TEST RESULTS

SRG Graphite Inc. has made progress in the development of its mineral processing flowsheet designed in conjunction with DRA Americas and SGS Canada. Additionally, the company has received positive testwork results on the expandable properties of its graphite flakes from the Lola deposit.

The key result highlights are as follows:

• Preliminary testwork suggests wet scrubbing as an alternative to traditional grinding is possible, which would reduce capital and operating costs while promoting flake size preservation.
• Continuing testwork suggests the developed flowsheet would allow for 95 per cent to 98 per cent graphitic carbon concentrate to be produced over all size fractions.
• Performed expandability testwork on plus 50 mesh and plus 80 mesh graphite concentrate obtained 350 millilitres per gram and 300 ml/g, respectively, well over industry requirements.

Scrubbing testwork

A first round of testwork is continuing at SGS Canada Lakefield, with focus on the grinding method, flotation and flowsheet development. SGS Canada conducted positive preliminary testwork, using rotary scrubbing for mineral size reduction and graphite liberation. These results support the hypothesis that, for SRG Graphite's weathered mineralized material, wet scrubbing alone, instead of the conventional primary grinding, is sufficient to produce the particle size required and ensure graphite liberation for flotation. The wet scrubbing method promotes graphite flake size preservation during mineral size reduction.

"The installation of rotary scrubbing circuit presents a great opportunity for the reduction in capital and operating cost, as rotary scrubbing equipment is typically less expensive and consumes less electric power compared to conventional (SAG, rod or ball mill) grinding circuit employed for the same feed rate and processing duty," said Volodymyr Liskovych, PEng, senior process engineer, DRA.

Flowsheet refinement

In addition to the continuing testwork for the company's preliminary economic assessment, SGS processed a 120-kilogram bulk sample of material from the Lola deposit using its latest flowsheet. The resulting grade concentrate is between 94.8 per cent Cg and 97.9 per cent Cg depending on the size fraction. Purity of 96.6 per cent Cg was obtained for the minus 100 mesh concentrate and 97.9 per cent Cg was obtained for the plus 50 mesh. Jumbo flakes alone (plus 50 mesh) accounted for 39 per cent of the total concentrate produced.

"The ongoing testwork continues to demonstrate a simple flotation flowsheet applied to SRG Graphite's ore produces high-purity graphite concentrate with a significant amount of large and jumbo flake fractions," says Russell McCarley, senior metallurgist at SGS Canada.

Graphite expandability testing

In addition to flowsheet development, the company has tested its graphite flakes with specialized German graphite laboratory, ProGraphite, for expandability properties. ProGraphite performed expandability testwork on plus 50 mesh and plus 80 mesh graphite concentrate and obtained 350 ml/g and 300 ml/g respectively using an industry standard method for expandability. Sulphuric acid (H2SO4) acted as acid and donor of the intercalation molecules, while potassium permanganate (KMnO4) acted as oxidizing media to start the intercalation.

"To our knowledge, graphite flakes treated with this method typically require ratios higher than 250 ml/g and 200 ml/g for the plus 50 mesh and plus 80 mesh respectively, to be suitable for expandable graphite markets. The coarse nature of SRG Graphite's flakes along with the results obtained during testing makes this market particularly interesting for the company," Christoph Frey, managing director at ProGraphite GmbH, said.

The technical information in this release has been reviewed and approved by Raphael Beaudoin, PEng, director of operations, SRG, and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About SRG Graphite Inc.

SRG is a Canadian-based company focused on developing the Lola graphite deposit located in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa. SRG is committed to operating in a socially, environmentally and ethically responsible manner.

We seek Safe Harbor.