Woxna graphite mine preliminary economic assessment (PEA)

Client & context

The Woxna project is based on the Kringelgruvan deposit and three additional graphite deposits under exploitation concessions. The mine is fully permitted and has produced flake graphite in the past. The latest PEA evaluates the potential to reopen the mine and expand and upgrade processing to produce:

• Concentrate from the existing Woxna concentrator, and
• Battery-grade coated spherical purified graphite (CSPG) and micronised graphite from a value-add processing facility.

At this stage, you need PEA-level mining inputs that your investors, board and regulators can understand and trust: mining methods, pit optimisation, production schedules, equipment concepts and mining costs, all consistent with the overall economic model and NI 43-101 requirements.

Challenge

If you are responsible for a brownfield graphite project like Woxna, there are several key challenges:

• Preparing an NI 43-101 Technical Report for a brownfield mine within a set disclosure deadline.
• Bringing together historic information and new engineering work into one coherent mining story.
• Working under Covid-19 travel restrictions, where access to site and core is constrained but data quality still has to meet NI 43-101 expectations.

In practice, you want a PEA that presents the mining methods, open pit optimisation, projected mine production, mining equipment concepts and mining costs in a clear, decision-ready format for a graphite project in central Sweden.

Approach

The PEA mining work for Woxna was designed to give Leading Edge Materials a solid, transparent basis for decision-making.

Mining methods and open pit optimisation

The mining section defines a conventional open pit mining approach on the Kringel deposit, including pit optimisation, design parameters and production phases. The design considers pit slopes, haulage, bench geometry and other constraints suitable for a graphite operation in the Woxna area.

Mine production, equipment and costs

The study establishes projected mine production profiles and mining equipment concepts that match the planned concentrator and downstream value-add facility. Mining costs are estimated at PEA level, covering drilling, blasting, loading, hauling and support activities in a way that feeds directly into the project’s economic analysis.

Collaboration under travel constraints

During Covid-19, travel and site access were restricted. To keep the work on track, the PEA relied on structured collaboration between Leading Edge Materials and the independent PEA consultants. Data, models and assumptions were shared and reviewed in a way that maintained quality, traceability and compliance with NI 43-101, even when meetings were mostly remote.

Results & value

From this work, Leading Edge Materials obtained:

• A completed NI 43-101 PEA Technical Report mining section for the Woxna graphite project, describing mining methods, open pit optimisation, projected mine production, equipment concepts and mining costs in a transparent way.
• A clear technical basis for assessing the potential to reopen the Woxna mine to supply an upgraded concentrator and downstream anode material facility.
• PEA-level mining assumptions that link the graphite resource at Kringel with the planned CSPG and micronised graphite products for the European battery market.
• Timely delivery of the mining work within the NI 43-101 disclosure timeframe, despite Covid-19-related constraints.

For you, this kind of PEA demonstrates how an existing graphite mine with permitted infrastructure can be re-evaluated for battery materials markets using mining inputs that are both technically sound and disclosure-compliant.

Services used on this project

• Mining project evaluation & technical reporting (NI 43-101 PEA)
• Open pit mine planning & optimisation
• Mine production scheduling concepts
• Equipment concepts & mining cost estimation
• Mining project coordination under regulatory deadlines