GRAPHITE: Zenyatta tests create high purity, highly crystalline product

ONTARIO – Zenyatta Ventures, based in Thunder Bay, ON, has announced positive results from the pilot plant and metallurgical tests of samples from its Albany graphite project west of Hearst. Tests performed at SGS Canada's labs in Lakefield, ON, produced a high purity, highly crystalline graphite product.

Examined with a glow discharge mass spectrometer, the product showed less than 0.05% elemental impurities or >99.95% pure highly crystalline graphitic carbon (Cg). There were no deleterious inclusions, and the crystal structure was hexagonal with a real density of 2.25 g/cc. Samples have been sent to more than 20 end users for further evaluation.

The Albany graphite deposit is unusually in that it is a hydrothermal occurrence. That makes the resource very pure, easy to process, and commanding of the best prices. The deposit lies near surface, under glacial till, making open pit mining preferable. Click here to read the latest presentation about the project.

Zenyatta says additional tests are underway to make a high grade flotation concentrate feed and further optimized the purification process. A preliminary economic assessment of the Albany project is due in Q4 2014.