Maputo — The Australian based mining company Syrah Resources announced on Tuesday that a survey of its Balama project, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado has confirmed that it contains multiple zones of high to very high grade graphite.
The concession, covering an area of 106 square kilometres, also contains deposits of vanadium. The deposits are about 265 kilometres west of the port of Pemba.
The survey covered 23 drill holes and 11 trenches and Syrah pointed out that the majority of the graphite and vanadium deposit is still untouched.
According to Syrah, there were “very wide zones of high grade vanadium recorded which are comparable in tenor to the largest operating vanadium deposits in the world”.
The company added that the graphite flakes were mainly medium to coarse. In general, the larger the flakes the higher the market price.
Graphite is a form of carbon which is highly valued due to its properties as a conductor of electricity. It is used in batteries and fuel cells, and is the basis for the “miracle material” grapheme, which is the strongest material ever measured, with vast potential for use in the electronics industries.
The price of graphite has recently rocketed to around 3,000 US dollars a tonne.
The company is also looking at mining vanadium at the site, an element used in the production of high grade steel.