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Standard Graphite Explores Quebec and Ontario Properties
~ By Greg Klein- April 23 2012
With today’s announcement of the Mousseau East acquisition in western Quebec, Going back to mid-century, the Black Donald Mine’s final 10 years of operation report-
Standard Graphite TSXV:SGH marks yet another graphite property, all in the carbon- edly produced grades between 25% and 30% carbon. In its time, it was “one of the
rich Grenville geological subprovince. But apart from piling up projects, the news highest-grade producing projects in the world,” Bogart says. The company reports its
marks an important step for the company’s experienced graphite team. “Mousseau EM survey found two long, well-defined conductors, possibly indicating mineralization
is a developmental asset,” says President/CEO Chris Bogart. “So it takes Standard that replicates the former mine’s trend. “That tells us that geological area is amenable
Graphite from being an exploration company into the developmental stage.” to graphite occurrences over large stretches of ground. There’s definitely the potential
for a lookalike mine.”
Groundwork has already begun there and on the 2,800-hectare Little Bryan, where
exploration will follow up on 1989 trenching and a recently found five-kilometre
near-surface conductive trend. Along with Standard’s B Lyall Property, Little Bryan
and Black Donald share proximity to Northern Graphite’s TSXV:NGC Bissett Creek
large-flake graphite project as well as Ontario Graphite’s Kearney Mine, scheduled to
resume production in 3Q this year.
Carheil, one of the northeast Quebec properties, also looks promising. EM results
suggest four conductors with strike lengths of up to six kilometres. The 3,885-hectare
property lies about 10 kilometres from Focus Metals’ TSXV:FMS high-grade, large-
flake Lac Knife Project. Spring thaw cooperating, groundwork should begin about
mid-May to be followed by summer drilling.
“Carheil has a power line and a road running right through the property, so we’ve got
great infrastructure considering where it’s at,” Bogart says. “It’s a big mining camp.”
Standard’s nearby Sandy Lake and Sandy Lake NE are also prospective targets.
Having the benefit of significant historic work, Mousseau now takes top spot as The company has properties galore, but Bogart emphasizes that Standard’s team
Standard’s flagship operation. A 1992 non-43-101 resource estimate by Graphicor plays a crucial role. “We’re the only exploration company that I’m aware of in Canada
Resources showed 598,480 tonnes grading 8.29% carbon proven, 219,450 tonnes that has a graphite exploration geologist and a graphite executive with sales, market-
grading 8.13% probable and 288,760 tonnes grading 7.85% possible. ing and operations experience. So we can not only discover, identify, evaluate and
graduate a project, but we also have a team that can take it to production.”
“Obviously we’re excited about that,” Bogart says. “We like the numbers. The grade
was exceptional. The mining scenario is excellent…. It opens up a lot of opportunities.” Chief Geologist Antoine Fournier’s 20 years of experience includes his role in the dis-
covery of the Lac Knife Deposit. Senior VP Business Development Benoit Gascon was
Work will begin with analysis of historic data prior to exploration. Bogart emphasizes, President of Stratmin Graphite, past owner of Lac-des-Îles. While there, he negotiated
however, that the company has its sights set higher. “We plan to expand the resource Stratmin’s takeover to form Timcal, where he remained in senior roles.
as well.”
The importance of a graphite geologist like Fournier is clear enough. Gascon brings
Mousseau has road access to Highway 117, 12 kilometres away, and lies within 50 an additional advantage. “In industrial minerals, sales and marketing are of absolute
kilometres of Timcal Graphite & Carbon’s Lac-des-Îles Mine, the largest of North cornerstone importance,” Bogart explains. “So we’re well suited to advance those
America’s two flake graphite mines. projects.” Bogart himself was co-founder of Magnum Uranium, a TSXV company which
was bought out by TSX-listed Energy Fuels.
The company’s been busy elsewhere too. Just last week, Standard finished a
3,310-line-kilometre airborne electromagnetic survey over its entire domains, most of Bogart will address OnPage Media’s May 2 Graphite Express-Conference in Toronto.
which have noteworthy neighbours. Three properties sit just within the Labrador Trough “I’m looking forward to it,” he says. “I always love telling the story to new people.”
in northeast Quebec, six in southwest Quebec, three more in southeast Ontario and a
straggler near the deep-sea port of Sept-Îles, Quebec. He concludes, “Any investor should lean heavily on management’s expertise and track
record. Ours is quite substantial. It’s a great management team that’s had a lot of suc-
“The results will be coming,” says Bogart. “We’ve already started ground work on our cess in this sector…. We’ve been doing well. We’ve had good results, we’re providing
Ontario properties. As the snow melts, we’ll do the mapping, sampling and trenching value.”
for all the properties. Once that’s complete, we’ll rank our properties according to the
“
results. And then we’ll start developing those and moving towards drill targets for the At press time, Standard Graphite had 24.1 million shares outstanding at $0.49 for a
summer.” market cap of $11.83 million.
Of the Ontario projects, Bogart points to Little Bryan and Black Donald as standouts
that also enjoy excellent infrastructure. The 9,000-hectare Black Donald Property
surrounds a former mine that produced both amorphous and flake graphite from 1896 We can not only discover, identify, evaluate
to 1954. Amorphous graphite is the type employed in steelmaking, as well as auto
clutches and brake linings, sports equipment and other uses. The more expensive and graduate a project, but we also have a
flake graphite is the type associated with emerging needs: lithium-ion batteries, team that can take it to production
vanadium redox batteries, pebble-bed nuclear reactors, solar panels and fuel cells
associated with energy storage, generation and efficiency. Graphite’s unique qualities
as an extremely light, strong, heat-resistant and conductive material open up a host of – Chris Bogart
present uses and future possibilities.
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