Peninsula Mines has identified high proportions of very large to jumbo sized flakes in rock chip samples taken from the Daewon and Yongwon graphite projects in South Korea. Flake size is one of the critical elements of graphite pricing, with jumbo and large flake sizes attracting premium pricing.

Metallurgical test work is in progress with the objective of optimising large-flake concentrate grades into the range required for spherical graphite production and lithium-ion battery applications.

Peninsula’s CEO Jon Dugdale said, “The identification of large and jumbo flakes from the Daewon and Yongwon Projects is very encouraging, as large flake size is a very important contributor to premium pricing of product for the high value end of the graphite market.”

Peninsula is a multi-commodity explorer, focused on opportunities for mineral discovery and development within South Korea. The company is focused, but not limited to exploration for graphite, lithium and gold.

Its projects include Wolmyeong (graphite); Daewon (graphite); Yongwon (graphite); Daehyeon (lithium); Dongsugok (lithium); Osu (gold-silver); and Ubeong (zinc-silver).

Sampling of the company’s key graphite projects has continued to generate high total graphitic carbon (TGC) grades, in particular from Wolmyeong with up to 76% TGC; Daewon up to 24.8% TGC; and Yongwon up to 18% TGC.

Yongwon’s graphite schist has been traced over a 300 metre strike with widths up to 20 metres. The majority of the graphite flakes observed are large, with some very large, jumbo sized flakes observed.

Daewon’s graphite schist has been traced over a 350 metre strike with widths up to 10 metres. Sampled graphite occurs as regularly disseminated, highly oriented graphite flakes including some large flakes.

Wolmyeong’s graphite schist has been traced over a 9km strike with testing indicating predominantly amorphous fine-grained type graphite.

Metallurgical test work is being conducted at NAGROM laboratories in Perth with the objective of generating optimal flotation graphite concentrates that will meet the specifications required for generating spherical graphite for lithium-ion battery and other high-end technology applications.

The next steps at Yongwon involve trenching to define exploration targets with electromagnetic surveys to then be considered to define drill targets. At Daewon channel sampling is under way and at Wolmyeong a metallurgy assessment will be completed.