Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
Walkabout Resources Ltd (ASX:WKT) has reported an increase in production from its Lindi Jumbo project in Tanzania during August, which has been able to produce a record 94 bags of graphite per day.
Occurring during the ramp-up and commissioning phase of the project, this average exceeds the theoretical break-even for the project, and means that larger sales orders can be exported at competitive prices.
The average amount of graphite produced in August has been 55 bags per day, and Walkabout has additionally been pleased to see that individual plant circuits have shown the ability to operate at volumes exceeding planned production.
One challenge for the ramp-up process in July and August was eliminating the
frequency and length of periods of plant downtime.
On both fronts this got better in August, with plant operational availability currently at around 84%, indicated by the notable increase in production of dry, screened graphite concentrate, plus the fact that the plant has been able to operate for more than than 48-hours without interruption on multiple occasions throughout that month.
Managing Director and CEO Andrew Cunningham said the improvements showed that things were on-track during this stage of the project.
“The significant increase in plant availability and utilisation over the past month reflects the commissioning team’s focus and has enabled the processing teams to concentrate on optimising the value attributes of the Lindi Jumbo product,” he said.
“Exceeding the theoretical breakeven output point is an important milestone to reach during the ramp-up phase of the Project. Lindi Jumbo is already demonstrating the benefits of its very high-grade deposit thereby operating at the lowest end of the cost curve while achieving a higher basket price due to its greater proportion of coarse flake graphite products.
“We look forward to further increasing our production over the remainder of the quarter and shipping more high-quality product to our global customers.”
Walkabout has been trading at 9.8 cents.
