The Talga Group Ltd (ASX: TLG) share price is dipping during late afternoon trade. This comes despite the technology minerals company announcing it has commenced trial mining at its wholly-owned Vittangi graphite project.
Throughout the day, Talga shares have been hovering in negative territory. Currently, its shares are down 3.21% to $1.51.
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Trial mining campaign commences
In its release, Talga advised it has begun trial mining to extract natural graphite from Vittangi's Niska South deposit. The sample size is estimated to be about 2,500 tonnes of 'critical element' as deemed by the European Union.
The raw ore will be processed and refined into the company's flagship Li-ion battery anode product Talnode-C. This will be then used for large scale qualification trials in electric vehicle batteries.
Talga's site works included the installation of environmental monitoring systems, such as dust sampling and water treatment equipment, as well as fencing. In addition, roadworks and overburden clearing have been conducted at the site, revealing visible high-grade graphite near surface.
The target graphite mineralisation appeared at a much shallower depth than expected at 0.5 meters to 3 metres below. Originally, the company estimated the graphite ore to be at a depth of 4 metres to 5 metres.
Talga managing director, Mark Thompson, commented
We are excited to start this trial graphite mine at Niska South to supply critical natural graphite for our downstream refining into greener Li-ion battery anodes for electric vehicles. Additionally, seeing such shallow and high-grade mineralisation extending from our drilling and deposits up to 3km away demonstrates the consistency of this world-class graphite supply for more sustainable battery manufacturing within Europe.
Talga share price summary
Over the course of 2021, Talga shares have taken investors on a rollercoaster ride, down roughly 7% for the period. However, when looking at the past 12 months, its shares have posted a 55% gain, buoyed by a sharp rise last November.
Based on today's price, Talga commands a market capitalisation of around $457.88 million and has approximately 303.23 million shares outstanding.
