WMN acquires Grafindo Nusantara
Tuesday, December 22 2015 - 01:42 AM WIB
ASX-listed Western Mining Network (WMN) announced Tuesday it acquired 100 percent shares in PT Grafindo Nusantara (GFN), Indonesia?s leading private graphite company with 8 million tons of JORC resources in West Kalimantan.
WMN said in a statement that it acquired the shares from existing shareholders in return for issuance of twenty five million newly issued shares, without cash consideration.
The company said that the transaction is subject to foreign investment approval, completion of parties? due diligence and any shareholder or regulatory approvals.
GFN owns two graphite tenements in Jangkang district West Kalimantan, one held by PT Trans Sulawesi Tenggara (TST), which consists of 80.5 hectares of land for mining and the second by PT Trans Sulawesi Sejahtera (TSS), consisting of 10,000 hectares of exploration ground. An additional 25 hectares of land has been acquired at the TSS property to accommodate a camp site, processing plant, road and tailings facility.
WMN said this significant asset adds to the portfolio of graphite mining asset the company is acquiring to build an integrated carbon business with its technology and industrial partners. In combination with the Tamboli asset in Central Sulawesi, it strengthens WMN?s long term plan to use Indonesian graphite to feed into a larger downstream business in Asia. WMN said it directors believe that now is the time to lay the foundations for the upcoming boom in carbon products.
WMN said several years of extensive research has been done on the TST project, leading to a high level of confidence in the quality of product that can be produced. GFN has developed a strategic alliance with several leading universities in Indonesia and has funded several research projects on graphite based technologies and graphene applications. The company also has an experienced local team in place, with the capability of moving the project into the development phase and beyond.
The projects are located in the Jangkang district of West Kalimantan Province. Ready access can be made to the site via the Provincial capital, Pontianak, followed by travel along a mostly asphalt road over a distance of 215 kilometers.
The TST concession is located in the eastern part of what is known as the Northwest Kalimantan Domain (NKD). The geology of the area comprises a combination of igneous, metamorphic and deformed sedimentary sequences, with common occurrences of slate, mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, shale, quartzite, phyllite and schist. These rocks are interspersed and in places dominated by thin, black carbonaceous units containing high grade graphite. The sequence is underlain by marine, calcareous sediments and volcanic rocks have been deformed and metamorphosed to produce the heat and pressure required for graphite formation.
SRK Consultants completed a JORC resource for the Balai Sebut deposit in November, 2013. Their estimate is based on an 89 diamond hole program, resulting in 4,720 meters of drilling over an area initially defined by geophysics.
Balai Sebut Mineral Resource Statement - November 2013
| Category | Tonnage (kt) | Mean TGC (%) | TGC (kt) |
| Inferred | 7,968 | 12.7 | 1,009 |
This estimate is based on a cut-off grade of 4% TGC, using a bulk density value of 2.31 g/cm3. TGC estimates are based on XRD analysis only, from a total of 901 samples.
In contrast to the Tamboli deposit in Central Sulawesi, the Balai Sebut deposit hosts mostly flake graphite, which open up new downstream markets for the mine products.
A Mining License for graphite has been granted for this project by the Indonesian government, which is valid for 20 years commencing July, 2013. Preliminary mine studies have confirmed a low strip ratio open pit mine can be developed at Balai Sebut.
Early work on the metallurgical aspects of the project suggest a conventional grinding and flotation plant can be used to extract the ore and produce high value products to suit the carbon downstream market.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak