WMN signs HOA with Korean consortium to develop Tamboli Project
Tuesday, December 9 2014 - 01:13 AM WIB
ASX-listed Western Mining Network Ltd (WMN) announced Tuesday that it has signed a Heads of Agreement (HOA) with a consortium of three South Korean companies to fast track development of the company?s Tamboli Project in Kolaka, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia.
WMN said in a statement that the consortium consists of Udin Engineering Co. Ltd (Udin), E-Petro Chemical Co. Ltd (E-Petro), and Nexinova Corporation Ltd. (Nexinova).
Under the HOA, WMN will be responsible for mining and stockpiling graphite ore, Udin will be responsible for engineering, procurement and construction of a beneficiation plant at the Tamboli Project and E-Petro will be responsible for ensuring that the output from the beneficiation plant will be a suitable graphite carbon powder that can be marketed by Nexinova to its proprietary steel industry customers throughout Asia.
Udin and E-Petro, both based in Seoul, Korea, possess experience and capabilities to beneficiate and process raw graphite ore into a high purity level of graphite carbon powder. They are ex perienced in the design, construction and operation of beneficiation plants for graphite. The beneficiation plant will be located at WMN?s property adjacent to the proposed mine site.
Udin and E-Petro plan to position WMN to deliver a minimum of 1,000 tons per month of graphite carbon powder with consi stent quality and particle size, which is key to ensure suitability for use in the recarburisation process used in steel manufacturing, refractories, carbon bricks for blast furnaces, and battery anode manufacturing processes.
Nexinova, also based in Seoul, manufactures technology systems and components utilised in major steel manufacturing companies throughout Asia. Nexinova possesses proprietary relationships with major steel manufacturers in Korea and throughout Asia including Indonesia and has agreed to help market the graphite processed at the beneficiation plant to its existing customers.
The parties have agreed to work together to negotiate, perform further due diligence and finalize before February 28, 2015, a definitive binding agreement, the WMN statement said.
WMN is currently in the process of defining a JORC Resource on its Tamboli project. The drill cores recovered from the company?s initial drilling campaign completed in October are currently being tested at Bureau Veritas? laboratory in Indonesia using LOI, Double LOI and XRD testing equipment. Although this process is not yet completed, the company has already applied for its IUP production license for the Tamboli mine site and is currently awaiting government approval.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak