Focus Graphite starts 2012 drilling at Lac Knife, to upgrade resources

Focus Graphite (CVE:FMS)(OTCQX:FCSMF) said Friday that it has started its 2012 infill and exploration drilling program at the Lac Knife grapite project in Quebec.

Around 5,000 metres of infill drilling is planned, with the aim of upgrading the miner's existing inferred resource to the indicated category.

The results will be used to revise and upgrade the company's NI 43-101 compliant 4.9 million tons at 15.8% Cgr (Carbon as graphite) indicated resource, and 3.0 million tons at 15.6% Cgr inferred resource published last December.                

An additional 2,500 metre exploration drill program will be done to test a number of targets outside the existing resource on the Lac Knife property.
               
This program will test "high priority" surface graphite prospects, the company said, that were identified from historic information and geophysical anomalies in the southern lateral extension of the deposit.
               
"Based on the historic, early exploration information we inherited from Lac Knife's previous owners, there are clear indications our property may hold substantially larger volumes of graphite than our deposit holds," said president and CEO Gary Economo.
               
"Lac Knife deposit remains open in all directions and at depth and we anticipate that our drilling will permit us to upwardly revise our resource estimate at the end of the program."
               
Focus Metals is an emerging mid-tier junior graphite company and is the 100 percent-owner of the highest-grade technology graphite resource in the world, also known as Lac Knife in Fermont, Quebec.

With a grade of 16%, Economo says it will be able to produce large and medium flake, battery-grade graphite at the lowest cost in the world, at just $350 per tonne.

In May, Focus inked a licensing agreement with Hyrdo-Quebec's technology research institute, IREQ, allowing the junior explorer to develop a graphite purification facility and anode production facility for lithium-ion batteries.
The new, Focus-owned facility will transform first-production graphite sourced from the company's Lac Knife deposit in Quebec to battery-grade material.
The junior graphite explorer also earlier this month signed a letter of intent  to earn up to a 60 per cent interest in Lara Exploration’s (CVE:LRA) Canindé graphite project in Brazil, in a deal worth $7 million.
The Canindé graphite project is located in Ceará State in northeast Brazil and comprises 15,615 hectares of exploration licenses.