As London-listed Blencowe Resources advances the definitive feasibility stage of the Orom-Cross graphite project, in Uganda, towards production near the end of 2025, the company has had various fruitful engagements with offtakers.

From only 2% of its total tenement area, the Orom-Cross project has a 24.5-million-tonne indicated and inferred resource grading 6% total graphite. 

Blencowe visited Jilin Huiyang New Material Technology Company in China earlier this month, which is currently processing a 600 t bulk sample of small flake graphite from Orom-Cross.

Blencowe is working on a pilot programme with Jilin to produce commercial-scale processed samples for a range of potential Tier 1 offtakers in China and South Korea that are involved in battery manufacturing.

Blencowe explains that prequalification of product with industry buyers is a crucial step for any serious graphite miner, which Blencowe has been successfully advancing for nearly two years.

In addition to the small flake graphite samples, Blencowe has also received positive feedback on large flake graphite samples from Orom-Cross from other potential offtakers that use larger flake graphite.

The company has also met with various engineering, procurement and construction groups and Chinese strategists to advance Blencowe’s in-country downstream spherical graphite (SPG) processing strategy.

“We believe that adding local Ugandan downstream SPG processing facilities will enable us to capture more of the downstream value chain and significantly enhance Orom-Cross's already compelling economics. This will also substantially differentiate Blencowe from its graphite peers,” says chairperson Cameron Pearce.

In an interview with investor relations platform Focus IR, Blencowe CEO Mike Ralston said what makes graphite unique is that it is not sold onto a metals market or exchange, but directly to end-users, who tend to be very discerning.

Ralston emphasised that the company is not rushed to reach production, rather preparatory works and planning are being approached comprehensively and diligently, particularly since the company aims to produce a high-quality, clean product and be involved in downstream processing on uncoated SPG – a battery-ready product – outside of China.

Blencowe will update the market on the progress of its testwork and interest from offtakers in coming months.