Advertisement

Castle joins graphite rush

Castle Minerals managing director Mike Ivey.

UPDATE 3.30pm: Graphite groupies have latched onto Castle Minerals today, sending its shares sharply higher after it announced a new discovery of it in Ghana.

Castle said Rotary Air Blast drilling had intersected "significant widths of graphitic schist" at its Wa project in north west Ghana.

"Zones up to 100 metres wide have been reported from logging of RAB holes," the company said in a statement.

"The zones occur over at least 3km of strike based on drilling and interpretation of geophysical data.

"This is the first recorded occurrence of graphite in the area."

Managing director Mike Ivey described the find as a greenfields discovery made as a consequence of gold exploration.

"Given the current strong interest in graphite… this prospect may hold significant value for Castle," he said.

However Castle warned that it had no carbon assay data for the drilling because the original drill samples were submitted only for gold analysis.

The company said it could not comment on the graphite content until carbon analysis was completed.

Castle holds six projects in Ghana, which are prospective mainly for gold.

Castle Minerals shares closed up 1.3 cents, or 40.63 per cent, at 4.5 cents after touching an earlier peak of 5.8 cents.