South Star Battery starts commercial production at Santa Cruz Mine, Brazil

South Star Battery Metals Corp. [TSXV: STS; OTCQB: STSBF] reported that commissioning at Santa Cruz Phase 1 Graphite Mine in Bahia, Brazil is complete and that the first product has been placed in the one-tonne big bag.

Ramp-up of commercial production is underway, and first shipments of natural flake graphite concentrates are expected by the end of October. The Phase 1 mine and process plant construction and commissioning was completed as Santa Cruz team approaches 286,488 manhours and 678 days without a loss-time accident. Santa Cruz is the first new graphite production in the Americas since 1996.

As-builts engineering drawings of the constructed Phase 1 process plant detailing the electrical, mechanical, structural, foundations and earthworks as well as a bottleneck/process optimization study are underway to explore the potential to upgrade the Phase 1 processing plant capacity.

Richard Pearce, President and CEO, commented: “After a 14-year odyssey starting in 2010, we are pleased to announce the end of commissioning and start of commercial production ramp-up. It has been a long time coming, and we are fully permitted to expand to 50,000 tonnes/year of graphite concentrate production as the markets and clients need more material. We have scalable assets in Tier 1 jurisdictions and outstanding, highly crystalline natural flake graphite coming to the markets at a critical time in the West.

“We are negotiating several large potential commercial agreements for 2025 and look forward to building long-term relationships with clients. I would like to once again thank our shareholders and Board for an outstanding job and endless support getting us to this historic day, which I envisioned for over a decade.”

Eric Allison, former CEO and current member of South Star’s Board of Directors has decided to not stand for reelection and will retire in October after the upcoming AGM.

South Star is a Canadian battery-metals project developer focused on the selective acquisition and development of near-term production projects in the Americas. South Star’s Santa Cruz Graphite Project is the first of a series of industrial- and battery-metals projects that will be put into production.

Brazil is the second-largest graphite-producing region in the world with more than 80 years of continuous mining. Santa Cruz has at-surface mineralization in friable materials, and successful large-scale pilot-plant testing (> 30 tonnes) has been completed.

The results of the testing show that approximately 65% of graphite concentrate is +80 mesh with good recoveries and 95%-99% graphitic carbon (Cg). With excellent infrastructure and logistics, South Star Phase 1 is ramping up commercial production with first sales expected to be delivered in October 2024. Santa Cruz Phase 1 commercial production has a nameplate capacity of 12,000 tpy and is the first new graphite production in the Americas since 1996. Phase 2 production (25,000 tpy) is partially funded and planned for 2026, while Phase 3 (50,000 tpy) is scheduled for 2028.

South Star’s second project in the development pipeline is located in Alabama, USA in the centre of a developing electric-vehicle, aerospace, and defense hub in the southeastern United States. The BamaStar Project includes a historic mine active during the First and Second World Wars.

A NI 43-101 guided technical report with the maiden resource estimate has been filed on SEDAR. Trenching, Phase 1 drilling, sampling, analysis, and preliminary metallurgical testing have been completed. The testing included a traditional crush/grind/flotation concentration circuit that achieved grades of approximately 94-99% Cg with approximately 90% recoveries. The vertically integrated production facilities include a mine and industrial concentrator in Coosa County, AL and a downstream value-add plant in the Southeast U.S., which will be upgrading natural flake graphite concentrates from both the Santa Cruz and BamaStar mines. South Star is executing on its plan to create a multi-asset, diversified battery-metals company with near-term operations in strategic jurisdictions.