1. The CCB hydrothermal graphite is primarily hosted in marble. Within the deposit there are basically 3 ore classifications:
· High Grade Veins -30-90% Cg (dark grey-black)
· Disseminated graphite – 1-15% Cg (grey)
· Pure White Marble – 0% Cg
Obviously the high grade vein material and the disseminated material will be mined, crushed, milled, floated and the 99.9+% graphite will be sold. In the mining process, the pure white marble will also be extracted. Once the overburden has been discarded, most of the mined material will be ore. In mining terms, rock is any material that has no economic value. Any material that has economic value is called ore. The bottom line is that, because of the marble, CCB has very little rock and mainly ore. In mining the “strip ratio” refers to the volume of waste material required to be handled in order to recover some volume of ore. For CCB the strip ratio should be less than 1-1 meaning that there would be less waste material than ore and the cost of mining will be relatively low.
2. The news release dated Feb 10, 2015 reported that the latest metallurgical test at SGS was conducted on a composite sample of both vein material and disseminated material. The average head grade was under 8%. Using this material SGS flotation produced a concentrate with an average grade of 95.6% C (90.9-98.5% depending on mesh size). This proved that CCB can “bulk” mine ore containing both vein and disseminated material economically.
3. Based on the above, bulk mining at CCB would be open pit mining. When developing and operating a typical open pit mine, a lot of “rock” has to be removed and discarded because it contains no economic mineralization. (The walls of a typical open pit are a 45 degree slope). At CCB, much of the material that would otherwise be discarded will be marble (ore) that can be sold thus reducing the capital cost of developing the mine and reducing the cost of production.
4. The historical 1860 report is significant because it reports the existence of a 3 mile long graphitic vein system on the company’s West Block that is 10km from the Miller Mine on the East Block. The location of this vein corresponds to the VTEM anomalies identified by recent airborne surveys. CCB’s geologist has located the historic mining sites on modern maps and will explore these locations this spring
5. CCB has announced that they will be conducting a resource estimate on both their graphite and marble ores. A resource estimate has been the missing piece in the CCB story and until now they did not plan to spend the money to produce such a report. Clearly they believe they have an economic quantity of both graphite and marble. They wouldn’t be doing a resource estimate on graphite if the holes were barren, as some allege. In January, CCB reported that there were 133 core samples at the lab for graphite assay. They know there is graphite in the core because it is visible to the naked eye.
