Ceylon Graphite Garners New Sales Interest and Expands Discussions with Customer Targets

Vancouver, BC, July 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ceylon Graphite Corp. (“Ceylon Graphite”) (TSX-V: CYL) (OTC: CYLYF) (FSE: CCY) announced today the company has received new inbound sales inquiries and continues to advance commercial discussions with a range of buyers including those seeking direct ship material, others for value-added end products, graphene products and anode material production.

“There has been a significant increase in activity with potential buyers and I am confident that there are many customer options as the company scales production,” said Ceylon CEO, Sasha Jacob. “Although the company has not yet concluded any agreements for the sale of its graphite, interest has been received from customers in Asia, Europe and North America. Ceylon will continue to evaluate opportunities to capture the greatest margin at incremental stages of production volume increases.” 

The company also announced the completion of its new explosives magazine, allowing the company to stockpile sufficient munitions to continue expanded production without concerns of delays due to explosives delivery approvals.

This is an important step for the company as many historical delays have been related to delay in permits and delivery of explosives for blasting to access the best veins of Ceylon’s high-carbon graphite. The new magazine lets the company stockpile sufficient supply safely, to help avoid future potential mining delays.

The company experienced a recent delay in receiving its explosives permit due to a change in licensing authorities in Sri Lanka. Based on conversations with the government authorities, it is expected that the explosives permit will be issued together with the M1 mining licence extension in the near term. The company is ready to commence commercial production once the permit is received.

M1 graphite is predominantly above 95% carbon allowing for direct sales without further processing. The company anticipates building a graphite processing plant at site to process the graphite to 99%+. Members of the team have built such a plant previously and the company expects a quick return on investment given the significant value added in processing 99%+ material.

Test results published in March 2023 demonstrated that Ceylon Graphite’s vein graphite anode material exceeded comparable anodes made with industry standard commercial synthetic graphite.

QUALIFIED PERSON

Dr. Ranjith Premasiri, PhD, MPhil, Bsc, CGeol (UK) FGeol (UK) CGeol (SL), an employee of Sarcon Development (Pvt) Ltd. and not independent to Ceylon Graphite, is a “Qualified Person” as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release.