Battery anode and advanced materials company Talga Group Ltd ('Talga' or 'the Company') is pleased to announce it has commenced trial mining at its 100% owned Vittangi graphite project in north Sweden ('Vittangi' or 'the Project').

The 2021 trial mining campaign ('Campaign') is extracting an approximate 2,500-tonne sample of natural graphite, an EU defined 'critical mineral', from the Niska South deposit of Vittangi. The raw ore will be processed and refined into the Company's flagship Li-ion battery anode product Talnode-C, for large scale qualification trials in EV batteries.

Site works include the installation of environmental monitoring systems, such as dust sampling and water treatment equipment, and fencing as well as roadworks and overburden removal with stockpiling of topsoil for rehabilitation of the 100m x 100m site at the end of the 2021 Campaign.

Initial trial mine excavation revealed the target graphite mineralisation commences at shallower depth than expected, beneath only 0.5-3 metres of soil and till cover as opposed to 4-5 metres originally estimated. Visually the Niska South mineralisation is consistent with that of the high-grade graphite core in underlying diamond drillholes completed by Talga in 2019, and the Nunasvaara North/South JORC resources over 1-3km along strike to the south.

The anode product produced from this Campaign will be the first large-scale use of natural graphite from the Niska part of Vittangi since successful metallurgical testing of the drill core for the Niska Scoping Study (ASX:TLG 7 December 2020). The study considered standalone production of 85,000tpa Talnode-C anode and 8,500tpa Talphene graphene for silicon anodes to be added to existing plans for 19,500 tonnes anode per annum from Nunasvaara South (ASX:TLG 1 July 2021).

Talga Managing Director, Mark Thompson, commented: 'We are excited to start this trial graphite mine at Niska South to supply critical natural graphite for our downstream refining into greener Li-ion battery anodes for electric vehicles. Additionally, seeing such shallow and high grade mineralisation extending from our drilling and deposits up to 3km away demonstrates the consistency of this world-class graphite supply for more sustainable battery manufacturing within Europe.'

Contact:

Mark Thompson

Tel: +61 (0) 8 9481 6667

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