Great Southern Graphite Project
The Great Southern Graphite Project has a combined area of 150km² (granted licences) with bedrock geology interpreted to be gneiss, granitoids and remnants of Archean mafic rocks. The majority of the area is covered by laterite soils. The Project comprises mostly freehold farmland to the west of the township of Kendenup in the southwest of Western Australia. It is well serviced by infrastructure being approximately 12km north of the regional centre of Mt Barker and 62km north of the Port of Albany.
Castle Minerals Limited has entered into a Tenement Sale Agreement and also applied for an adjacent exploration licence covering the historical Kendenup graphite mine and the nearby Martagallup graphite occurrences.
A 1913 report by the Inspector of Mines stated that the historical Kendenup graphite mine comprised a 15m-deep vertical shaft and some 20m of level development onto an east-west striking array of veins, lenses and seams of graphitic material. It is not known to what extent these workings were subsequently extended. Aside from reconnaissance regional programs for gold and base metals, little modern exploration appears to have been completed on the Kendenup licence area.
- Martagallup licence (E70/5963) hosts the historical Martagallup workings and is adjacent to the Kendenup licence (E70/5514) which hosts the historical Kendenup workings
- Application made for 133km² exploration licence (ELA70/6494) encompassing the Mt. Barrow graphite occurrence, 15km south east of Castle’s Kendenup licence area.
- Graphite mineralisation has also been intersected in the south of the Martagallup licence by third-party diamond drill testing of an electromagnetic (EM) anomaly primarily for base metals.
- An EM anomaly appears to be along strike from the Kendenup graphite workings and may represent an extension to the horizon that hosts the Kendenup graphite.
- The Great Southern graphite project is a key component of Castle’s Battery Metals strategy which now comprises the Wilgee Springs lithium, Woodcutters lithium and the Kambale graphite projects.