KALGOORLIE (miningweekly.com) – Graphite production has restarted at the Zavalievsky graphite mine and processing plant, in Ukraine.
ASX-listed Volt Resources on Tuesday said that the export of graphite products to central and eastern Europe will commence later in August with sales revenue planned to be received soon thereafter.
Volt suspended graphite mining and processing operations at Zavalievsky following Russia’s invasion into Ukraine in February this year. In June, the company undertook a A$2-million capital raise to restart operations.
Volt said on Tuesday that the company has been working with Zavalievsky management in recent months to finalise the operating plan and budget for the next 17 months through to the December 2023 calendar year end.
Based on past operating performance and improvements to operations and planning, Zavalievsky is forecast to produce between 8 000 t and 9 000 t of graphite products for the year ending June 2023. The production forecast for Zavalievsky’s unique high value purified graphite product will be provided once operations are ramped up and stabilised.
The production forecast includes a provision of two months lost production during the winter months due to the water and tailings pipeline issue previously disclosed.
Volt told shareholders that the company would be looking for solutions to implement to mitigate this lost production in the winter months.
Sales prices are currently being negotiated but are expected to be in the range of $750/t to $850/t for the fine flake product grading 94% total graphitic carbon. Zavalievsky’s high purity product grading between 99% and 99.5% total graphitic carbon is expected to achieve a sales price between $1 500/t to $2 000/t.
