The maiden shipment of graphite concentrate from the Lindi Jumbo graphite mine, in Tanzania, is set to depart to Europe early this months, unlocking a new global graphite mining jurisdiction.

The shipment for Europe will be followed by further exports to destinations in Asia.

Australian company Walkabout MD and CEO Andrew Cunningham said that demand for graphite product from Lindi Jumbo was vibrant and that it was attracting market pricing.

“Our focus is on continuing to methodically ramp up production and product quality to meet this demand,” he said.

Pilot orders of between 20 t and 80 t are being received on a regular basis and will be fulfilled from concentrate produced during the commissioning and ramp up phase.

The company is increasing plant throughput as part of the ramp up and plans to achieve at least one-third of the nameplate production capacity by the end of July.

At full production, Lindi Jumbo will be the highest margin producing mine globally, Cunningham said. “Lindi Jumbo continues to impress and at current estimated operating costs is currently one of the lowest cost producing mines in the world with one of the highest basket prices globally,” he stated.

When running at nameplate capacity, monthly costs of the mine are expected to be about $1.4-million to $1.5-million. At these levels, the mine will continue to be one of the lowest cost operations in the world, despite costs expected to exceed 2019 definitive feasibility study (DFS) forecasts.

The impacts of inflation have contributed to a 15% increase in mining costs, compared to the 2019 DFS. Logistics costs are also 53% higher than used in the DFS, as the majority of product will be exported out of Dar es Salaam, rather than Mtwara that is closer to the mine. This will continue until vessel traffic increases at Mtwara beyond the cashew nut season.

The DFS is based on 40 000 t/y of graphite concentrate with a high grade feed to the plant at an average of 230 000 t/y of the life-of mine of 24 years.