Walkabout Resources assesses in-country potential to increase Tanzanian graphite resources

Walkabout Resources (ASX:WKT) (FRA:N6D) continues to assess in-country growth potential in Tanzania and potentially extend its graphite footprint through reconnaissance and exploration campaigns. At Kimoingan Project in northern Tanzania, the company has hit high grades of up to 27% total graphitic carbon (TGC) following detailed mapping on PL1114/2017 while multiple parallel mineralised graphitic units of up to 12 kilometres in length have been mapped out with further extensions possible undercover. Walkabout has also generated new and more refined exploration targets at the flagship Lindi Jumbo Project, where further interpretation and reprocessing of historical VTEM data and exploration campaigns at the Gilbert Arc deposit area has extended the exploration potential range (EPR). The EPR over its two flagship graphite tenements in Tanzania is now between 72 and 172 million tonnes at a grade ranging from 8% to 15% TGC. “Prominent force within graphite industry” Chief executive officer Andrew Cunningham said: “The conservative estimation of the exploration potential range within a small portion of the company’s graphite holdings in Tanzania is based on areas where the company has hard evidence of high-grade graphite occurrences that fit our exploration and development strategy. “With the majority of funding for the Lindi Jumbo Project now secured and with a relatively conservative production scale entry into the graphite market, the growth potential within our current tenement holdings firmly enables the company to become a prominent force within the graphite industry, not only in East Africa, but globally.” The Kimoingan Project is near the Merelani graphite deposits that are being exploited on a small scale by private companies. Detailed mapping and sampling within the licence area have delineated multiple graphitic zones up to 2 kilometres in length with most of the tenement covered by soils and or calcrete and with grab sample results up to 27.0% TGC. The exploration potential range for the licence area is estimated to be between 22 and 72 million tonnes of in situ graphite bearing material at 10-15% TGC. Lindi Jumbo Graphite Project  Within the Lindi Jumbo Graphite Project area in south-eastern Tanzania and in proximity of the high-grade, large flake JORC-compliant Gilbert Arc Deposit (the existing mineral resource), the EPR of unexplored and under-explored ground covered by the previously reported VTEM survey area has also been updated. Utilising the vast technical dataset generated through historical exploration campaigns at the Gilbert Arc Deposit area and drawing on Walkabout’s experience with high-grade graphite deposits, the existing VTEM dataset has been re-processed and re-interpreted with many of the VTEM targets evidencing high-grade surface sampling assays as previously reported. This exploration potential range was confined to the portions of ML579/2018, PL13376/2018 and PL9993/2014 that were covered by the VTEM survey completed in 2015. It is important to note that only 22% of the current contiguous tenement package covering 169 square kilometres of prospective ground for graphite mineralisation is covered by the VTEM survey. The targeting within the tenement package was restricted to the areas covered by the VTEM survey and was only focussed on where the company has hard evidence of high-grade graphite occurrences (> 15% TGC) through surface mapping and sampling. Approach to drive growth The conservative production case for the Lindi Jumbo mine of 40,000 tonnes per annum over 24 years, currently under construction, only uses a small proportion of reported mineral resource. Walkabout will now proceed to further explore and define selected areas in anticipation of a need to expand production from its graphite mineral assets. Next steps include: Accelerate conversion of in or near pit Inferred and indicated mineral resources to reserves in the Gilbert Arc zone; Undertake further exploration and drilling on the mining lease; Undertake further exploration and drilling of the target areas within Prospecting Licences PL11409/2020, PL9993/2014; Consider the extraneous processing of estimated 8 million tonnes of low-grade stockpiles at around 6% TGC; and Undertake further exploration and drilling of the high-grade target zones within the Kimoigan prospecting licence PL11119/2017. The potential quantity and quality of the quoted EPR outside the Gilbert Arc resource area is conceptual in nature as there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the determination of a mineral resource over any of the additional target areas.