JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – TSX-V-listed Northern Graphite’s Bissett Creek project was given the go-ahead on Monday after the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines approved the project’s mine closure plan and granted a mining lease.

After ten months of waiting for the approval of the mine closure plan for the eastern Ontario mine, and two years for the mining lease, the company, subject to the availability of financing, could immediately kick off its construction activities.

“It is unfortunate that it took the Ontario government 10 months to approve the mine closure plan when it is represented as a 45-day process,” commented Northern Graphite CEO Gregory Bowes, adding that the mining company could now “get on” with the next phase of the project.

Owing to the approval of the mine closure plan, which outlined the current baseline environmental conditions, potential effects on the environment together with the appropriate mitigation measures and the rehabilitation plan, besides others, Northern Graphite could focus on securing other permits, including those related to air, noise, water and species at risk.

Meanwhile, various aspects of the operating plan and the bankable feasibility study were currently being revised to incorporate a new, larger resource and lower graphite prices, as well as a number of modifications to the original capital and operating cost assumptions.

The revised economics were expected to be completed within the next few weeks.

Northern Graphite said it would replace contract mining with a owner mining structure, which would reduce operating costs by over $100/t of concentrate, while injecting an additional $7-million in capital for mining equipment, which would be offset as detailed engineering, modifications to the semi-autogenous grinding mill drive and discharge, the use of a mobile crusher and the  removal of a redundant mill circuit, reduced or eliminated costs.

A preliminary economic assessment was also under way to show the economics of doubling production in three or four years to meet the anticipated growth in graphite demand.

Graphite is mainly used in the steel and the automotive industries and also has other uses, for example in batteries, lubricants, fire retardants and reinforcements in plastics.