99.9% Graphitic Carbon – Mason Graphite
MONTREAL – Mining – Mason Graphite Inc. has announced that purities of 99.9% graphitic carbon (“Cg”) have been obtained from preliminary studies testing the purification of the graphite concentrates from its flagship Lac Guéret project located in northeastern Quebec.
The graphite concentrate of 99.9% Cg was achieved using a conventional hydrometallurgical process conducted at SGS Canada Inc. (“SGS”) in Ontario, Canada. The purification trials were conducted on graphite concentrates that were produced by SGS during recently completed lock cycle tests. The trials were carried out on three coarse size fractions of graphite: +48, +80 and +150 mesh.
Benoît Gascon, President and CEO of Mason Graphite, commented, “Having reached 99.9% Cg from the very first run of testing, without any optimization, reaffirms our belief in the exceptional quality of the graphite hosted on our property. These high purity levels are required in many industrial applications including electrochemical applications like Lithium-ion batteries which are used in electric vehicles, portable electronics and cordless power tools, which represent a significant and growing market.”
The table below presents the complete results for the caustic bake process trial.
| Size fraction | Graphite (% Cg) |
| +48 mesh | 99.6 |
| +80 mesh | 99.7 |
| +150 mesh | 99.9 |
Mason Graphite will now move forward with larger scale testing designed to optimize the purification process and further improve these excellent results.
Upcoming Mineral Resource Estimate and Technical Report Update
An updated mineral resource estimate for the Lac Guéret project is underway by Roche Ltd. Consulting Group (“Roche”). All the data obtained from the Company’s 2012 drilling campaign was transferred to Roche on August 1st, 2013 and geological interpretations are progressing well. This will be followed by 3D modeling of the mineralization and subsequently an update to the mineral resource estimate itself, which is expected by the end of November 2013. Upon completion of the foregoing, the Company’s Technical Report for the Lac Guéret project will be updated accordingly.
The latest mineral resource estimate for Mason Graphite’s Lac Guéret project was published in July 2012 and features 0.3 Mt at 24.4% Cg in the Measured category and 7.3 Mt at 20.2% Cg in the Indicated category. These calculations were based on 25 drill holes (obtained from 2003 and 2006), for a total of 2,285 meters of drilling and 908 samples analyzed.
The new data from the 2012 drilling campaign which will be used to update the mineral resource estimate represents an additional 146 holes for a total of 24,345 meters of drilling and 15,507 samples analyzed.
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