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South Star Announces Filing of Technical Report with Significant Increase in Mineral Resources and Positive BamaStar Economic Results for Vertically Integrated Graphite Mine and Value-Add Project in Alabama, U.S.A.
Highlights: Positive National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") Preliminary Economic Assessm...
About this update from South Star Battery Metals Corp
[{"type":"text","content":"South Star Announces Filing of Technical Report with Significant Increase in Mineral Resources and Positive BamaStar Economic Results for Vertically Integrated Graphite Mine and Value-Add Project in Alabama, U.S.A.Highlights:Positive National Instrument 43-101 (\"NI 43-101\") Preliminary Economic Assessment (\"PEA\") for the BamaStar Mine and Concentrator Plant in Coosa County, AL and a value-add upgrading plant in Mobile, AL. The natural flake graphite concentrate precursor material for the value-add plant will come from South Star's BamaStar and Santa Cruz Mines, which is now in Phase 1 operations in Brazil. First production for BamaStar is planned by 2027.Pre-tax Net Present Value (\"NPV8%\") of US$2.4B with an Internal Rate of Return (\"IRR\") of 35% and after-tax NPV8% US$1.6B with an IRR of 27%.Life of mine (\"LOM\") gross revenue of US$9.9B as well as pre-tax and post-tax free cashflow of US$6.0B and US$4.3B, respectively.19-Year open-pit mine life with an average concentration production of 47,147 tonne per year (\"tpy\") and a 2.4x increase in Mineral Resource tonnage, which contains over 1Mt of contained graphite.BamaStar Mine and Concentrator Plant is developed in a modular, phased approach using a simple proven flowsheet resulting in 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. Each of the planned two phases of the Concentrator Plant would produce approximately 25,000 tpy for a combined total of 50,000 tpy of natural flake graphite concentrate.The value-add plant is designed using chemical purification technology and standard, commercially available equipment with no intellectual property that can purify to battery grade (> 99.95% Cg). The Mobile, AL Plant is also developed in a phased, modular approach with each of the planned three phases producing 20,600 tpy of upgraded graphite for a total of 61,800 tpy of upgraded products. This amount includes approximately 38,000 tpy of coated, purified, spheronized graphite (\"CSPG\").1 Kg of purified graphite was transformed into purified and micronized graphite, as well as CSPG using standard, commercially available, non-proprietary technologies. The CSPG was used to make both CR2032 coin and pouch cells. The successful preliminary electrochemical testing results de...