There is no hope in sight for Namibia’s two graphite projects – Okanjande and Aukam.
This week, Gratomic Inc., the owner of the Aukam graphite mine, failed to file its Annual Audited Consolidated Financial Statements and Management Discussion & Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2024.
The other company, Northern Graphite, announced that it is still working on securing funding for the Okanjande project.
Gratomic acquired the Aukam mine in 2020 when it bought Next Graphite 37% in Gazania 242.
The Aukam property is comprised of EPL 3895 with respect to base and rare metals, industrial minerals, and precious metals.
The license covers an area of 34,075 hectares on the farms Aukam104 and Harichab121, located in the district of Bethanie, Karas region of southern Namibia.
The Aukam mine hosts some of the highest-grade vein graphite globally, ranging between 3% and 81% Cg.
The Aukam mine was expected to start operations in 2024, producing between 7,600t and 12,000t.
By 2025, production should be between 12,000 and 16,000t before ramping up to 16,000 and 22,500t.
Gratomic went into the commercial commissioning phase in late 2023 and stockpiled enough to produce 12,000 tonnes by November 2024.
During the commercial commissioning phase, Gratomic processed 300 tonnes of graphite, resulting in approximately 80 t at 94% compacted graphite.
Test processing results produced an average grade of 98.37% Cg in cleaner concentrate after flotation, while higher (>99.9%) concentrations can be achieved with air classification.
Namibia is one of four known countries in the world, together with Sri Lanka, Great Britain, and the US, where vein graphite is found.
Vein graphite has a graphitic content ranging from 94 to 99% and is used in brake linings, lubricants, refractory materials, battery cells, carbon brushes, lithium-ion batteries, and the plastic industry.
Sri Lanka is the only country worldwide that produces commercial quantities of vein graphite with more than 98% carbon purity.
But Gratomic says it has delayed filing the Financial Disclosure, and the resulting default is primarily due to a lack of available funding.
The company says it has been trying to raise funding to provide much-needed working capital and to pay the accountants and the auditor to perform the audit but has been unable to do so to meet the filing deadline.
The company has applied for a Management Cease Trade Order to be imposed against some or all of the CEO, CFO, directors, officers, or insiders instead of a cease trade order against all its securities.
Such an order would not generally affect the ability of persons who have not been the company’s directors, officers or insiders to trade the company’s securities pending the filing of the Financial Disclosure on SEDAR +.
Gratomic also says it is working with its accountants and auditors to complete the audit and financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2024, as soon as possible.
The filing of such financial statements and related MD&A should be on SEDAR+ by June 30, 2025.
Until the Financial Disclosure is filed, Gratomic intends to satisfy the provisions of the Alternate Information Guidelines as set out in the Policy for as long as it remains in default, including the issuance of bi-weekly default status reports, each of which will be issued in the form of a press release.
Gratomic is not subject to insolvency proceedings; no other material information concerning the company’s affairs has been generally disclosed.
Should Gratomic fail to SEDAR + file the Financial Disclosure on or before June 30, 2025, the Ontario Securities Commission may impose a cease trade order that all trading in securities of the company ceases for such period specified in the order.
In November 2023, Gratomic Inc. said it would need C$4,7m (about N$63m) capital expenditure on the Aukam Graphite facility to push output to 12,000 tons by November 2024.
The money did not come through, and Gratomic Inc. allowed some of its mining claims in Brazil, comprising the Capim Grosso Property, to expire to focus attention and resources on its Aukam Property in Namibia.
In July 2024, Gratomic sold its non-core assets, including a house the company owns in Windhoek, to obtain working capital and complete a technical report on the Aukam Property.
Northern Graphite & Okanjande/ Okorusu
The Okanjande project comprises the Okorusu fluorspar processing plant and the Okanjande graphite deposit.
The graphite deposit is about 20 km south of Otjiwarongo in the Otjozondjupa region, while the Okorusu processing plant is about 78km from Okanjande and 60km from Otjiwarongo town.
The Okanjande deposit is within mining licence 196, valid until February 9, 2042. The licence area is 903.4 ha. The Okorusu is within mining licence 90, valid until January 8, 2030.
The Okanjande/Okorusu graphite project was in production from August 2017 until October 2018, when previous owners placed it on care and maintenance due to start-up issues with the Okorusu processing plant, which did not meet design specifications.
Over 400 people lost their jobs when the Okorusu plant went into care and maintenance. There were 321 full-time employees and 86 contractors at the mine.
The Okorusu has been mined since around 1920, closed in 1963, and reopened in 1988, operated by Okorusu Fluorspar (Pty) Ltd. Solvay SA acquired it in 1997 and passed it on to Imery’s.
The Okanjande mine and the Okorusu processing project went into care and maintenance in 2018, and Northern Graphite’s acquisition from the Imery’s Group in 2022.
Northern Graphite conducted a preliminary economic assessment in 2022 to correct the issues and bring the operation back into production.
The assessment concluded that Okanjande/Okorusu could be back in operation by mid-2023, with an average production of 31,000 tons per annum of graphite concentrate.
The assessment report also indicated that the Okanjande resource presents the opportunity to build a large new processing plant at the mine site with the capability of producing 100,000-150,000tpy of graphite concentrate.
Northern Graphite conducted another preliminary economic assessment, which was released in August 2023.
Further, Northern Graphite said the preliminary economic assessment showed that it would be cheaper to operate the plant if it were moved to Okonjande, albeit the envisaged higher capital costs.
The report also concluded that the project hosts a weathered resource of 5.9Mt containing 248kt of graphite in the measured and indicated category, 0.5Mt of inferred resources containing 17 Mt graphite, a transitional resource of 1.2Mt containing 53kt of graphite in the measured and indicated categories and 0.1Mt of inferred resources containing 2kt of graphite.
There is a fresh rock resource of 24.2Mt containing 1.3Mt of graphite in the measured and indicated categories and 7.2Mt of inferred resources with 0.4Mt of contained graphite.
The preliminary economic assessment was based on only processing 6.1MT of measured and indicated resources (.34Mt of contained graphite), producing an average of 31,000 tons per year of concentrate over a 10-year mine life.
In December 2023, Northern Graphite indicated the intention to start production at the Okanjande Project by the end of 2024 once financing became available.
Northern Graphite said that maintaining Okanjande and Okorusu cost US$400,000.
But according to Northern Graphite’s Audited Financial Statements and Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2024, the company continues to evaluate options to fund the Okanjande project through the use of a royalty/stream/debt structure and equity contributed by a strategic partner without having to go to the market at current share prices.
On April 16, 2025, Northern Graphite said the battery-grade graphite from the Okanjande project would be upgraded into Battery Anode Material in a facility in France for an estimated investment of €159 million.
Under the project’s scope, pre-purification, milling and shaping of the graphite would occur in Namibia and purification and coating would occur at a new facility in France.
The mining of graphite at Okanjande is not covered under the scope of the Strategic Project. However, Northern intends to file a subsequent proposal, including extraction activities at the Namibia site.
