TIDMTGR
RNS Number : 7567K
Tirupati Graphite PLC
06 September 2021
The information communicated within this announcement is deemed
to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market
Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this
announcement, this information is considered to be in the public
domain.
6 September 2021
Tirupati Graphite plc ('Tirupati' or the 'Company')
Completion Of Commissioning & Start of Sellable Production
from Vatomina 9,000 tpa Plant
Tirupati Graphite plc, the fully integrated, revenue generating,
specialist graphite producer and graphene and advanced materials
developer, is pleased to advise that it has completed the
installation and commissioning of its first 9,000 tpa flake
graphite module at its Vatomina Project ('Vatomina') in
Madagascar.
Highlights
-- Completed the installation and commissioning of first 9,000
tpa flake graphite module at Vatomina, which brings the total
production capacity in Madagascar to 12,000 tpa on the path to
reaching total production capacity of 84,000 tpa by 2024.
-- Equipment testing, dry and wet commissioning trials completed
successfully allowing initiation of ore feed and start of sellable
production at start-up ore feed rate of 15 tonnes per hour ("tph"),
being 50% of the plant rated capacity; ore feed rate being
progressively increased up to full rated plant capacity.
-- Stockpiling of finished products commenced with first
shipment to fulfil pre-orders received by the Company from
customers in Europe, USA and Asia expected within 2 weeks
generating first revenues from Vatomina.
-- Other ongoing activities across the two Madagascan projects include:
o Progressing with Stage II exploration and drilling programmes
initiated in February 2021;
o Extension of internal infrastructure and roads, including a
road connecting the two projects;
o Redevelopment of the Sahamamy hydropower plant to a 100-kilo
watt capacity; and
o Initiation of activities for the development and advancement
of construction of the second 18,000 tpa module at Sahamamy.
Shishir Poddar, CEO of Tirupati Graphite, said, Shishir Poddar,
CEO of Tirupati Graphite, said, "We are delighted to have completed
the commissioning of the first of four modules at Vatomina, which
marks the latest in a series of investments to increase production
of high-quality graphite from our projects in Madagascar to support
world demand and continue the expansion of our production capacity
up to 84,000 tpa by 2024. This is a commendable achievement for the
Company given the procurement and logistics challenges that were
faced by the team whose tireless efforts enabled us to successfully
execute our plans to upscale the plant capacity to 9,000 tpa and
get into production. This is an important milestone as it now
brings both our Madagascan projects into operation and advances us
on our journey of becoming a material global supplier of
sought-after Madagascan flake graphite.
"We recently announced 12-month trading results from our 3,000
tpa Sahamamy plant, which further demonstrated the low-cost
advantage we possess in our operations. With 12,000 tpa of
production capacity (i.e., 4x increase from current) now
operational, we expect the unit cost of production to be improved,
which will lead to an enhancement on the c.57% gross operating
margins that was achieved at Sahamamy, a s the production output at
Vatomina ramps up to the full rated capacity of 9,000 tpa. The
start of production at Vatomina provides us with additional
revenues and operational margins, which will be used to partially
fund our development funding costs going forward.
"Our recent announcement regarding the impending acquisition of
a portfolio of advanced stage graphite assets in Mozambique will,
if completed, boost our mineral resource base by over 152 million
tonnes @ 8.5% TGC, complementing our existing mix of predominantly
jumbo and large flake graphite products from our Madagascan
projects. We continue to rework the development plans for these
projects and look forward to updating the market as we progress to
secure the approvals for completion of the acquisition."
Details
The Company remains focused on strengthening its primary mining
and processing in Madagascar where it operates two high-quality
flake graphite projects, Sahamamy and Vatomina, which are being
developed using a modular approach that provides the flexibility to
respond to evolving graphite market conditions.
Having commenced production at Sahamamy in March 2019, Tirupati
has now completed the installation and commissioning of its first
9,000 tpa flake graphite module at Vatomina, which brings the total
production capacity in Madagascar up to 12,000 tpa. Notably, both
projects offer a favourable larger flake size distribution, which
is priced at a considerable premium to smaller size flakes and is
being sold to customers globally. As previously announced in the
Company's trading results (refer RNS dated 24 August 2021), the
'Average Selling price per MT of Production' achieved was
US$801/GBP605. Under the Company's medium-term development plan
('MTDP'), total capacity in Madagascar is planned to increase to
84,000 tpa by 2024.
The plant's design, construction and installations were
undertaken by the Company using its demonstrated capabilities and
experience with the development, construction, implementation, and
operations of the 3,000 tpa module at Sahamamy. Major activities
included, but were not limited to:
o Construction of circa 22,000 square feet ("ft(2) ") of covered
buildings including the main plant building, engineering centre,
stores, office building and residential accommodation buildings and
associated facilities;
o Design of the raw material crushing and feed system tailor
made for the saprolitic ore type from the projects, which were
manufactured at the engineering centre by the Company at the plant
site;
o Two Self Attrition Graphite Extractors ('SAGE') units
installed in a series, SAGE is a proprietary equipment designed and
manufactured by the Company's founders that removes sand from the
graphite ore at the first stage or the process and is being
successfully used at Sahamamy;
o A set of milling and flotation equipment which are the key
processing circuit components in the process plant to enrich the
flake graphite up to 96% purity;
o Installing dewatering, drying, screening, blending and
magnetic separator systems for finishing of flake graphite products
that are tailor-made to customer requirements;
o Installing an electrical system that included 61 electrical
motors of ratings ranging from 1 Horsepower ('hp') to 50 hp for a
total >530 hp; 12 electrical control and supply panels; 3 diesel
generator sets with combined capacity of c.900 Kilo Volt Amperes;
and over 3 circuit kilometres of flexible copper cabling;
o Installing a set of input water, process and tailing pumps
integrated with c.3 kilometres of water and tailings line
piping.
o Set up of a Quality Control Laboratory with capacity to test
>75 graphite ore, process and finished product samples per day
and perform microscopic studies of ore and finished products which
is planned to be strengthened further with X-ray fluorescence
spectroscopy and similar equipment to meet advanced testing
requirements of the Company's high-tech customers.
o Two mining pits have been opened and supplying ore to the ROM
pad and feedstock to the process plant (see RNS dated 21 April
2021).
The commissioning and start of production processes included a
series of dry trial runs for each plant equipment followed by the
entire processing plant. Wet runs were then executed equipment wise
and for the entire process plant, after which feed of ore and start
of sellable production was initiated at start-up ore feed rate of
15 tph, being 50% of the plant's rated capacity. All equipment
testing, dry and wet commissioning trials were completed
successfully with no material defects requiring rectification. The
ore feed rate is being progressively increased up to the plants
rated capacity as production output ramps up to full plant capacity
over the coming 4 to 6 weeks.
The capacity of the first module at Vatomina was upscaled to
9,000 tpa in February 2021 (see RNS dated 8 February 2021), in
response to increased demand. Additional work to upscale the
capacity included:
o Increasing the planned constructed area from c.15,000 ft(2) to
22,000 ft(2) ;
o Modification of the previously received flotation equipment to
upsize capacity;
o Addition of a larger primary mill, two higher capacity SAGE
units used for sand separation, one flotation cell, a larger
crushing system and additional finishing equipment;
o Increasing the mining equipment fleet size;
o Increasing the previously planned capacity of ancillary
facilities including power generation and distribution system and
water management system.
A number of other development activities continued alongside at
the Company's two Madagascan projects, which include, but are not
limited to:
o Progressing with Stage II exploration and drilling programmes
initiated in February 2021 (see RNS dated 10 February 2021);
o Construction of additional and strengthening of existing
internal infrastructure and roads, including a road connecting the
two projects (see RNS dated 21 April 2021);
o Redevelopment of the Sahamamy hydropower plant to a 100-kilo
watt capacity (see RNS dated 8 March 2021);
o Initiation of activities for the development and advancement
of construction of the second 18,000 tpa module at Sahamamy (see
RNS dated 29 June 2021).
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014. Upon the publication of
this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be
in the public domain.
**S **
For further information, please visit
https://www.tirupatigraphite.co.uk/ or contact:
Tirupati Graphite Plc
Puruvi Poddar +44 (0) 20 3984 9894
Optiva Securities Limited (Broker)
Daniel Ingram +44 (0) 20 3137 1902
----------------------------
St Brides Partners Ltd (Financial PR) info@stbridespartners.co.uk
Isabel de Salis / Oonagh Reidy
----------------------------
Notes
Tirupati Graphite Plc is a revenue-generating, multi-asset,
multi-jurisdictional, fully integrated producer and developer of
high-grade natural flake graphite, speciality graphite and graphene
and graphene enhanced advanced materials. With a unique set of
properties, graphite has diverse applications with multiple growth
streams and graphene forms the new generation of 2D and advanced
materials. The Company places a special emphasis on "green"
applications, including renewable energy and energy efficiency,
energy storage, thermal management, and advanced materials
development, and is committed to ensuring its operations are
sustainable as well.
The Company's operations include primary mining and processing
in Madagascar, where the Company operates two key projects,
Sahamamy and Vatomina; 12,000 tpa of high-quality flake graphite
concentrate with up to 96% purity is the current capacity of these
projects and flake graphite being produced is sold to customers
globally. The projects are under staged development and total
capacity is planned to increase to 84,000 tpa by 2024 as per the
Company's modular medium-term development plan.
In India, through Tirupati Speciality Graphite Private Limited
('TSG'), with whom the Company has a binding acquisition agreement
subject to regulatory approvals, Tirupati is developing a suite of
speciality graphite for use in hi-tech applications like
lithium-ion batteries, fire retardants, thermal management, and
composites. Its current operations include the 1,200 tpa Patalganga
Project, focused on manufacturing the Company's trademarked
expandable graphite products CARBOFLAMEX(R) and GrafEN 45545(TM).
TSG is further developing 30,000 tpa specialty graphite project in
two equal size modules and has developed unique green processing
technologies for manufacturing these advanced materials.
TSG is also developing the Tirupati Graphene and Mintech
Research Centre ('TGMRC'), a state-of-the-art R&D centre
focussed on manufacturing graphene, developing its applications and
advanced materials using graphene, and further providing
environmentally friendly technologies consultancy for mineral
processing. Commercial operations commenced in July 2021 having
completed Stage 1 of the centre's development plan.
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END
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