Announcement • Oct 11
South Star Battery Metals Corp. Announces Significant Increase in Mineral Resources and Positive BamaStar PEA Results for Vertically Integrated Graphite Mine and Value-Add Project in Alabama, U.S.A
South Star Battery Metals Corp. announced the positive results and outstanding economics as presented in the NI 43-101 PEA for the BamaStar Graphite Project ("BamaStar") in Alabama ("AL") USA. South Star is developing a vertically integrated USA battery anode material strategy to supply the expanding worldwide lithium-ion battery ("LiB"), fuel cell, defense and industrial graphite markets. The BamaStar Project will consist of a graphite mine and concentrate processing facility in Coosa County, AL, as well as a value-add plant proposed in Mobile, AL for upgrading and transforming the graphite concentrates precursor. The proposed value-add plant is strategically located near the port and intermodal logistics facilities, and it will receive natural flake graphite ("NFG") concentrates from both BamaStar and South Star's flagship Santa Cruz Graphite Mine ("Santa Cruz") in northeastern Brazil'sBahia state, which is currently commissioned and ramping-up into commercial production. Santa Cruz is the first new graphite operation to go into production in the Americas this century. The strategic plan for the Company is to have two mines producing a total of approximately 100,000 tpy of high-quality NFG concentrates and a value-add plant in Mobile, AL producing a total of approximately 61,800 tpy of high-value, upgraded, transformed graphite products, including 38,000 tpy of CSPG. Past Producer:The BamaStar Project is located within the Alabama Graphite Belt ("AGB") and covers the historical Ceylon Graphite Mine. The AGB is a 112 km (70 miles) long, northeast-trending belt in the Clay, Coosa and Chilton counties in Alabama. Open Pit Mining with At-Surface Mineralization: Open pit mining is the proposed mining method with the initial 6 years focused on oxide material. As time passes, the mining will extend into transition and fresh rock materials. The mine schedule consists of 42.3 Mt of mill feed grading 2.11% Cg (diluted) over a processing life of 19 years. Open pit waste tonnage totals 66.5 Mt and will be placed into various waste storage areas together with filtered tailings. The overall open pit strip ratio is 1.6:1 of waste: mill feed. The mine schedule utilizes open pit mining areas to supply mill feed up to a maximum of 1.3 Mtpy for Phase 1 and 2.6 Mtpy for Phase 2 to the mill facility. Simple, Proven Flowsheet with Excellent Recoveries: A metallurgical process development culminated in a flowsheet producing an average recovery of 90% and concentrate grades ranging from 94% graphitic carbon ("Cg") for hard rock mill feed to >98% Cg for oxide mill feed. The BamaStar Mine and Concentrator Plant was developed in a modular, phased approach using a simple flowsheet with established and proven mineral processing technologies. Value-Add Plant (Mobile, AL): Dorfner Anzaplan GmbH ("ANZAPLAN"), a firm specializing in testing and designing facilities for converting NFG into value-add products, such as battery anode material, received 4 kg (8.8 lb) of NFG derived from BamaStar and successfully purified 2 kg using Hydrofluoric and Hydrochloric Acid to a Fixed Carbon ("FC") content of =99.95% from the NFG concentrate, which had a FC content of 93.47%, thereby confirming the suitability of the graphite from BamaStar for achieving battery-grade anode purity. Subsequently, 1 kg of the purified NFG was micronized, spheronized and coated with a standard commercial carbon pitch at a US independent laboratory, and the resulting CSPG was transported to a US battery design laboratory for slurry design, as well as coin cell and pouch cell performance testing. The BamaStar CSPG was thoroughly characterized, investigating the active anode material's rheological, mechanical and electrochemical properties for performance testing. All downstream transformational work and associated electrochemical testing were performed by an independent battery laboratory service provider in North America, under the direct supervision of South Star and the technical consultants. Phase 1 will process 21,300 tpy NFG from Santa Cruz and BamaStar. Subsequently Phases 2 and 3 will each process 21,300 tpy NFG from BamaStar Mine and Concentrator. All midstream and downstream transformational technologies and processes, including all associated equipment and consumables (including reagents) for the proposed value-add plant are state-of-the-art and well-established industry standards utilized by global leaders in commercial graphite processing and active anode materials manufacturing. South Star is proposing to only incorporate off-the-shelf equipment and technologies that are commercially available, accepted and expected by all major potential battery clients. No new, unproven or proprietary technologies and/or processes are being proposed, nor is there any new IP relating any aspect of the value-add plant as presented in the PEA. Each phase or module of the value-add plant is designed to produce 12,600 tpy of CSPG, comprising Medium CSPG and Fine CSPG products, with a FC content of =99.95%. In addition, the Anode Plant will produce an uncoated SPG fines by-product at 8,000 tpy. The nominal design of the Anode Plant is based on a NFG feed rate of 21,300 tpy per expansion phase, containing an FC content of =95.0%. The NFG is purified in the Purification Plant to produce 20,000 tpy of purified NFG with a FC content of =99.95%. This is fed to the Spheronization Plant where the NFG is first micronized followed by spheronization. The spheronization consists of two stages to yield 10, 000 tpy of Medium SPG and 2,000 tpy of Fine SPG. The purified spheroidized product is fed to the coating plant, which after adding pitch tar, yields 12,600 tpy of battery-grade, active anode, CSPG product with a FC content of =99.95%. Tested Both Coin and Pouch Cells: The initial characterization of the BamaStar CSPG included the mixing and casting of graphite anode slurries to produce electrodes (specifically, anodes) to commence half-cell testing in order to determine basic material electrochemical performance metrics, e.g., irreversible capacity loss (ICL or first-cycle loss), reversible capacity, resistance, and Coulombic efficiency. Ultimately the purpose of building and testing Li-ion batteries with BamaStar CSPG is to determine the CSPG's initial electrochemical performance, in comparison to a commercial reference material. Positive Electrochemical Performance: The BamaStar CSPG performed well as battery anode materials and experienced a first-cycle loss of 7% and an average reversible gravimetric capacity of 361 mAh/g (approaching the theoretical maximum of 372 mAh/g for natural graphite). In pouch-cell testing, the BamaStar CSPG showed significant potential capabilities for fast-charging Li-ion battery applications, with stable cycling up to 3C. These are excellent initial test results, given that this preliminary performance testing program was non-optimized and is currently ongoing.