The Company is pleased to announce its Interim Results for the six-month period to 31 March 2025.
Electronic copies of the report will be available at the Company’s website www.blencoweresourcesplc.com
For further information please contact:
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Blencowe Resources Sam Quinn
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Tel: +44 (0) 1624 681 250 info@blencoweresourcesplc.com
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Investor Enquiries Sasha Sethi |
Tel: +44 (0) 7891 677 441
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Tavira Securities Limited Jonathan Evans |
Tel: +44 (0)203 192 1733 jonathan.evans@tavirasecurities.com
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Interim Management Report
This report covers the period 30 September 2024 to 31 March 2025, and subsequent events to 30 April 2025.
During this period Blencowe has been focused on the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for the Orom-Cross graphite project, and the many aspects that are part of this critical milestone.
Work has taken place in three key areas, namely (1) bulk sample testing and pre-qualification for offtake agreements, (2) further drilling at Orom-Cross and (3) infrastructure work at site, and other local requirements such as the updated ESIA. In all areas Blencowe has made considerable progress as we now head into the final stages of the study, confident we have a DFS emerging that showcases a very valuable, long-term graphite project.
The necessity to get end products qualified with end users as the means to deliver offtake agreements has added time, cost and complexity to the DFS. However, with the support of the Ugandan Government, Blencowe mined and shipped 600 tonnes of Orom-Cross ore to pilot testing facilities in China where extensive testing was done at both concentrate and purified stages, to ensure the end products carry the chemical characteristics the buyers are seeking. All results to date are positive. These tests were completed in late 2024 and samples have been sent (and continue to be sent) to many potential offtakers all over the world, for both large and small flake products. Orom-Cross has a high-grade end product that is widely recognized as industry-leading and offtake agreements have been signed with end users covering the full range of products we will produce.
As part of the DFS a further 7,000m drilling program was planned for the latter stages of the DFS with three key objectives. Firstly, to infill previous drilling to convert substantial tonnes of resources to reserves, to increase the mineable volumes (and extend the life of mine), secondly to provide geotechnical information for mine planning and pit designs, and thirdly to step out and drill new targets identified at both Northern Syncline and the exciting new Beehive deposit. To date all drilling has been successful and core is now being sent to accredited labs in Tanzania for assaying. Thereafter this information will feed into a revised JORC Resource report and Blencowe is hoping for a significant increase in the existing 25Mt JORC Resource for Orom-Cross. Work will be completed by the Q3 2025 and fed into the DFS thereafter.
Considerable work has taken place in-country to plan all necessary infrastructure to ensure Orom-Cross can move into production, including roads, power, water, communications, and camp facilities. As part of the latest drilling program the first permanent camp has been erected at Orom-Cross which is another milestone for the Company. This work is nearing completion and a revised ESIA (environmental report) was accepted by the Ugandan authorities earlier in 2025. Graphite specialist technical firm CPC Engineering have been working on plant design and will ultimately sign off on the entire DFS once all parts are concluded.
In addition, Blencowe has been working through its proposed strategy to incorporate a downstream processing facility to produce uncoated spheronised purified graphite (USPG) in-country, which adds significant advantages and value to the overall project. One of the most experienced SPG producers in the world has expressed their desire to build and operate this facility in Uganda under a Joint Venture arrangement with our Company, and Blencowe is working through this structure and strategy to ensure this gets incorporated into the overall DFS. Selling a large percentage of the small flake concentrate produced by Orom-Cross into this SPG facility nearby provides an offtake outlet that is extremely valuable and differentiating to graphite peers.
In parallel to the Orom-Cross DFS work the Company has actively been pursuing funding alternatives, both short term (to complete the study) and longer term, to bring the project into production. With the support of the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), which is the private sector lending arm of the US Government, Blencowe has been able to use the US$5 million grant funding provided by DFC to advance the Study. In addition, funds have been raised in the UK with the support of Tavira Securities Limited, the Company’s brokers. A long term funding solution involving both debt and equity is being worked through, with DFC envisaged as the cornerstone debt provider, but this can only begin to gather momentum once the DFS is completed.
The narrative above gives shareholders some idea of the wide range of work on numerous fronts, and across several continents, which is underway, all aimed at adding value to the exceptional Orom-Cross project. Challenges remain in the graphite market, and we are well aware of these, but we have a unique project that differentiates from its peers via key fundamentals, strategy and relationships that will all come together to bring this mine into operation ahead.
We thank our shareholders and other stakeholders for their continued support, and we look forward to further success for the Company as we achieve these milestones.
Mike Ralston
Chief Executive Officer
Link here for full interim results and financial statements