THE DRILL SERGEANT: Lincoln Minerals (ASX: LML) will have a lot to cram in its five minute pitch at the Roadhouse Steak Sandwich Showdown in Kalgoorlie next week.

Lincoln Minerals updated the market on progress of a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) underway for the company’s Kookaburra graphite project (KGP) in South Australia.

Lincoln is eyeing a staged development strategy at KGP where it aspires to deliver the first producing graphite mine for Australia for some time by leveraging the project’s unique attributes.

The company’s ambitions are based on:
• High grade core at surface: Potential to deliver low operating costs/high margins.
• Existing Mining License: Accelerates timeframe to first ore.
• Existing infrastructure: Power 5km’s, Water 12km’s and Road 0.1Km’s. Minimises capital and approvals timeframes.
• Proximity to major regional centre: 25 minutes from Port Lincoln.

Lincoln believes, based on publicly available information, that KGP has potential to deliver low start-up capital and operating costs and is likely to generate positive operating margins and an acceptable rate of return, even in a low graphite price environment.

“Lincoln’s Kookaburra Graphite Project is unique in Australia, in that it benefits from extremely high-grade graphite at surface, requiring no pre-strip, thanks to an orebody which literally sticks out of the ground,” Lincoln Minerals CEO Jonathon Trewartha said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“As an experienced mining project developer, it is clear to me that with a Mining Lease already approved and developing such high grades at the front end of the production schedule, means that Lincoln is likely to be able to generate attractive returns, even at low graphite prices.

“Our strategy to stage the development and initially to focus on the high grade at KGP will also allow us to progress to first ore potentially quicker than any other Australian project in Australia and enable Lincoln to deliver production-scale graphite concentrate for qualification in the EV markets while we plan the development of a larger project to feed the global demand for high quality anode material.

“We look forward to the results of our PFS to support our plans for KGP to be first to market in Australia, which would make it the preeminent graphite project, and we expect the outcome to attract significant interest in the project.”

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE