Blencowe Resources (BRES ) said it has raised £0.3m at 6p per share in order to advance development work at the company’s Orom-Cross Graphite Project in Uganda.

The natural resources company said £0.075m of the £0.3m were new shares acquired by Directors and the CEO which the group believes is a reflection of their ‘strong support.’

The funds will be used to advance the Orom-Cross development into 2021. It was recently drilled and samples were sent to South Africa for assaying and maiden JORC Resource.

Blencowe completed the 2,000m diamond drill program at Orom-Cross and it is now awaiting assay results in South Africa to deliver its maiden JORC Resource for the project. 

Further samples were also sent to the highly accredited SGS Lakefield laboratory in Canada for stage two metallurgical test work. Results for both sets of results are expected in 1Q21.

Blencowe will be moving to develop its first commercial study for Orom-Cross during 1H 2021, which it said will indicate the strong potential for an initial ten year mining operation.

Blencowe said it intends to incorporate these results to present a Feasibility Study in 2021, which will deliver first commercial outcomes for the project and map out first production.

"We are pleased to announce further cash has been raised to extend all development work for Orom-Cross into 2021, with key stakeholders contributing meaningfully in a show of faith.  

“We appreciate all their support and we look forward to a successful year ahead with some significant milestones and continued progress,” said Cameron Pearce, Executive Chairman.

Blencowe believes it is strategically “well positioned” as a significant future player as the graphite market expands as the adoption of electric vehicles (EV) accelerates worldwide. 

Shares in Blencowe Resources have ticked up by over 2% in the past month to open 1.60% higher this morning at 6.35p following the announcement.

Reasons to Follow BRES

Blencowe is a mineral resources company focused on fast-tracking its 100% owned Orom Cross Jumbo Graphite Project in Uganda to production. Orom Cross is an advanced exploration stage project which was awarded a 21-year mining licence in October 2019. 

The development company which is currently focused on bringing the Orom-Cross graphite project into production, completed its 69 hole (1,950m) diamond drill programme into the Eastern Limb Lode and the High-Grade Camp Lode in September 2020.

The size and scale from exploration work that has already been completed in the licence area has clearly demonstrated that Orom Cross has the potential ‘to become one of the largest graphite projects in the world based on both size and the quality of the end product.’ 

Blencowe is fast tracking the project through to defining a maiden JORC-compliant resource, completing further metallurgical test work with a plan to deliver a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) in Q1 2021 followed shortly after by a Pre- Feasibility Study (PFS). 

Align Research describes Graphite as ‘an important battery metal’ since it represents around 50% of Li-ion batteries by mass, which uses the smaller sized flakes. In recent years there have been some racy growth rates suggested for graphite demand for lithium ion batteries. 

Meanwhile, the group said demand for electric vehicles (EV) is rising on the back of green legislation being adopted by the UK, India, Germany, France, Norway and China, which is expected to lead to an increasing demand for Li-ion batteries and in turn for graphite. 

Another integral factor is that Uganda’s economy is believed to hold ‘great potential’ with this whole region of East Africa viewed as a key African growth platform by the World Bank, hosting significant natural resources including copper, cobalt, gold, nickel and platinum. 

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