- The DFS was updated last week
- Financing and construction are next steps
What does Walkabout do?
Walkabout Resources Ltd (ASX:WKT) specialises in exploration and development, primarily in Africa.
What does Walkabout own?
The key asset is the Lindi Jumbo Graphite Project in southeast Tanzania.
Walkabout completed an updated definitive feasibility study (DFS) last Thursday, estimating the project would produce US$1.4 billion ($2 billion) of revenue over a 24-year mine life.
The project’s previously low development capital cost was lowered further to US$27.8 million.
The mine life was a 20% increase on the previous DFS.
Lindi Jumbo after-tax net present valuation (NPV10) also increased, by 9.4%, to US$197 million after a 10% discount was applied.
The project was awarded a mining licence (ML 579/2018) in 2017, with Walkabout being the first mining company in Tanzania to receive a licence after regulatory amendments.
Walkabout’s approval was considered a milestone for the company enabling a resumption in graphite marketing activities for off-take agreements and project development funding.
Walkabout increased the mineral resource at the project by 41% in December 2018 after a drilling and trenching program.
The global mineral resource increased from 29.6 million tonnes to 41.8 million tonnes total graphitic content (TGC) within the Gilbert Arc Deposit and remains open along strike and to the west/down dip.
Much of the tonnage increase came from an inferred resource zone to the south of the current planned mining shell and will not be used in an updated mining depletion model.
The latest inferred resource area is 12.8 million tonnes at 9.2 % TGC and lays directly to the south of the current planned open-pit area.
Other projects include the Takatokwane Coal Project in Botswana.
Walkabout’s Botswanan project is the largest thermal coal asset in central south Botswana and has an inferred resource of 6.88 billion tonnes.
The company raised $3 million with an underwritten share placement in the December half-year and ended 2019 with $6.2 million cash.
Inflection points
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Further refinements and optimisations for Lindi Jumbo
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Financing milestones for project construction and expansion
Executive director Allan Mulligan pleased with updated DFS outcome
“We are very excited by the outcome of this DFS,” Executive director Allan Mulligan told Proactive Investors in an interview broadcast today.
“We briefed the mining engineer to high grade the property and the mining deposit as much of its life as he could and the outcome is that nearly a million tonnes of graphite will be used over 24 years.
“This equates to over a billion dollars in revenue and not bad for a mine that’s only going to cost $30 million to start.”
Walkabout Resources executive chairman Trevor Benson will deliver a presentation titled “Grade is King” in Perth today at 3pm (noon local time) on day 1 of the March 12-13 Paydirt's Battery Minerals Conference. Executive director Allan Mulligan will later take part in an Africa panel discussion at 6.20pm (3.20pm WST) today.