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(Alliance News) - Armadale Capital PLC on Thursday said the completed testwork on its Mahenge Liandu graphite project in Tanzania produced "highly encouraging results" and the company has begun plant design work ahead of schedule.
Shares in the natural resources investor and developer were up 11% in morning trade in London at 1.25 pence each.
Metallurgical testwork confirmed that "high-quality graphite flake of up to 97% purity can be produced" at Mahenge Liandu.
Armadale has now moved onto the next phase of its definitive feasibility study - plant design - earlier than planned.
Work has begun on the design of the Mahenge Liandu mine layout, having already mostly defined the location of the plant itself, as well as access roads and a tailings dam.
At present, Armadale said its talks with possible Chinese partners for off-take and project financing are underway.
Armadale Director Nick Johansen said: "Our focus this year has been increasingly demonstrating to our shareholders that we are in the process of transitioning from explorer to emerging producer.
"To this end, it is pleasing to see that we have now successfully completed an outstanding metallurgical test-work programme that convincingly demonstrates Armadale can produce a high-quality graphite concentrate.
"Our engineering team is now fast-tracking the next phase of the [definitive feasibility study], which should result in the main layout and flow-sheet being completed shortly.
"Against this technical backdrop, our marketing team now has significant incremental data points and is progressing discussions with our prospective Chinese off-take and project finance partners."