3- year plan at Lindi Jumbo graphite mine completed

The 3-year plan for the Lindi Jumbo graphite mine in Tanzania has been completed. CEO Andrew Cunningham expressed confidence in the project’s construction completion, stating that the arrival of the remaining mechanical equipment in Tanzania has further de-risked the project.

The optimization of the 3-year mine plan is aimed to ensure sufficient waste generation for constructing the Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) walls while also generating medium-grade (10 to 20% Total Graphitic Carbon or TGC) and high-grade (>20% TGC) ore stockpiles for blending, commissioning, and steady-state operations.

The new 3-year mine plan represents a significant improvement over the Life of Mine (LOM) plan completed in the 2019 Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for several reasons:

• It incorporates the pre-strip and waste-rock mining required for building the TSF, with the associated costs included in the capital expenditure.
• It shifts the first three years of mining closer to the processing plant, resulting in potential cost savings due to shorter ore tramming distances.
• It includes Inferred resources that were previously classified as waste in the 2019 DFS but are now above the cut-off of 10% TGC and occur within the updated pit design.
• It reduces the strip ratio by 39% compared to the previous 3-year plan.

Lindi Jumbo project

As a result, there will be a significant reduction in operational waste rock mining and potential cost savings. Specifically, the new plan indicates 1.25 million tonnes (42.2%) less waste rock mining than the initial three years in the 2019 mine plan. This reduction in waste rock and total tonnes mined has the potential to reduce mining operating costs, even with current increased per-unit costs due to factors such as inflation, higher fuel prices, and ancillary mining costs.

The development of the Lindi Jumbo project has been progressing rapidly, thanks to interim funding measures announced earlier. The drawdown of the Senior Debt facility will primarily be used to refinance these interim funding measures and will not affect the pace of site-based construction activities.

Regarding construction progress, approximately 600 tonnes of steelwork required for the large drying and screening building have been prefabricated, and the first consignment of steelwork has been delivered to the port in China for transportation to Tanzania. A team of specialist tradesmen and engineers needed for erecting the building frameworks is expected to arrive on-site in June.

Most of the mechanical equipment previously delivered to the site has been erected, including floatation cells, apron feeder, the crushing circuit, spiral classifiers, and associated steelworks. The TSF is 68% complete, with the rockfill at the retainer walls of the pre-deposition area 82% complete. Clay capping of the retainer walls is progressing well, with 37% completion. The lining of the pre-deposition area with High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) lining is scheduled to begin in early July. Additionally, there are over 19,000 tonnes of high-grade ore available on the stockpile.

Due diligence activities have been conducted for the proposed Senior Debt Facility, including technical, financial, legal, environmental, and marketing assessments. Gemcorp, the entity involved in the debt facility, conducted a site visit and met with key contractors and suppliers. The results of the due diligence will be presented to the Gemcorp Investment Committee to facilitate the final approval decision process.