NextSource Materials Inc. reported the results of its 2019 Feasibility Study for its 100%-owned Molo Graphite Project in southern Madagascar. The FS takes into account updated mine capital equipment and mining costs, as well as current 12-month rolling flake graphite pricing on a FOB China basis, supplied by UK-based battery mineral commodities research firm, Benchmark Minerals Intelligence. The FS was based on a Front End Engineering and Design study (“FEED”), and subsequent Detailed Engineering studies. The FS incorporates the procurement of all mining equipment, off-site modular fabrication and assembly, factory acceptance testing, module disassembly, shipping, plant infrastructure construction, onsite module re-assembly, commissioning, project contingencies and working capital. All capital and operating costs expressed for Phase 1 are considered to be accurate to +/- 10%, and accurate to +/- 12.5% for Phase 2. In order to ensure that the Company maintains a first-mover competitive advantage over the competition and to appropriately plan for future market demand, the FS was designed to provide a flexible mine development approach that comprises a unique, all-modular build solution yielding optimal cashflow and return metrics with suitable flexibility to enable a rapid response to the anticipated market demand for graphite. As previously reported to the market, the Company has an off-take agreement in place with a prominent Japanese trader, whom is a major supplier of flake graphite to Japan’s battery processor and manufacturer of graphite anode material in lithium ion batteries (“LiB”) for electric vehicle applications. NextSource is currently in the process of formalizing an additional sales agreement with a leading European trader. As such, the FS was undertaken to include two phases in order to account for off-takers’ demand for NextSource’s SuperFlake® graphite concentrate. PHASE 1: Production of 17,000 tpa, The first phase of production will consist of a fully operational and sustainable graphite mine with a permanent processing plant capable of processing 240,000 tpa of ore and producing approximately 17,000 tpa of high-quality SuperFlake™ graphite concentrate. The updated build cost of the fully modular process plant marginally increased from the US$18.4 million reported in the 2017 FS to US$21.0M due to equipment cost inflation. PHASE 2: Production Expansion to 45,000 tpa in Year 3. Phase 2 incorporates the processing of 240,000 tpa of ore (producing 17,000 tpa of SuperFlake® concentrate) for the first two years of operation and then ramping up to 720,000 tpa of processed ore in the third year to accommodate additional sales, resulting in a total of 45,000 tpa of SuperFlake® concentrate being produced for a mine life of 30 years. The costing for Phase 2 is based on the addition of two modules of the beneficiation plant with a proportional increase in mining and infrastructure costs. The capital mine cost for Phase 2 (with contingency) will be USD 39.1 million, for a total project cost (Phase 1 and Phase 2 with contingency) of USD 60.1 million. The Phase 1 production plan of 17,000 tpa of finished SuperFlake® concentrate for the first two years of production followed by a ramp-up to Phase 2 production of 45,000 tpa yields.