Renewable Energy Initiative Commenced

RNS Number : 4067R

Tirupati Graphite PLC

08 March 2021

 

8 March 2021

Tirupati Graphite plc ('Tirupati' or the 'Company')

Commenced Renewable Energy Initiative & Update on Madagascar Operations

Tirupati Graphite plc, the fully integrated, revenue generative, specialist graphite producer and graphene developer with operations in Madagascar and India, is pleased to announce an update on significant developments at its primary flake graphite projects in Madagascar, Sahamamy and Vatomina, including the redevelopment of hydropower facilities at Sahamamy and initiation of further studies for hydropower across both projects as part of its sustainable mining strategy targeting low emissions and waste generation. 

Overview

· Advancing hydropower strategy targeted to meet 100% of the power requirements for the Madagascan projects:

o  Developing initial 100Kw hydropower facility at Sahamamy resulting in an estimated ongoing saving of c.10% in the operating cost per tonne of output and a c.50% reduction in carbon emissions.

o  Accelerating further studies and detailed planning on the back of the earlier conducted prefeasibility studies for additional c.900Kw hydropower capacity prospects to provide 100% renewable power generation for the next two production modules.

· Improved monthly sales indicate Sahamamy operations are moving out of the impacts of the pandemic:

o  Average monthly sales for the first two months of 2021 improved 63% at an average price of US$855 per metric tonnes ('MT') from the average for the nine-month period from 1 April 2020 to 31 December 2020 at an average price of US$776 per MT.

· Advancing various work streams to increase primary flake graphite capacity in Madagascar to 12,000 tonnes per annum ('tpa') during Q2 2021:

o  On track to commission enhanced 9,000 tpa Vatomina operations in Q2 2021.

o  Progressing construction of the new road connecting Vatomina and Sahamamy.

Shishir Poddar, CEO of Tirupati Graphite, said, "Increasingly, consumers and manufacturers alike realise that zero carbon at use is just part of the story and that there is a need to look holistically at the processes along the whole supply chain.  Accordingly, as highlighted by the strong demand for our primary flake graphite, there is significant preference for the lowest impact deposits around the world.  With this in mind, we remain focused on delivering eco-friendly operations, and being a green source in the supply chain for EVs and other green applications.  Our hydropower renewable energy initiatives are part of this strategy, which will help us reduce our carbon footprint by almost 50% and also result in cost savings.

"Additionally, given the strong demand for our product, we are excited to have accelerated the development of our primary flake graphite operations in Madagascar to an initial 12,000 tpa in Q2 2021.  We are on track to commission the 9,000 tpa plant in Vatomina which will enable us to fast-track the development of markets for our three business units in this opportune time of strong and growing demand for our products, besides enhancing our significance in the global ex-China graphite markets.  

"Having already demonstrated >50% operating margins in the first year of our initial 3,000 tpa facility at Sahamamy and made progress despite the impacts of the pandemic including continuing travel restrictions and logistics challenges, we look forward to continuing to enhance shareholder value at industry low capital and operating costs."

Further Information

The Company, which holds a Green Economy Mark accreditation from the London Stock Exchange, continues to make significant progress across its operations including its primary mining and processing projects in Madagascar, Sahamamy and Vatomina. 

In line with its sustainable mining strategy, the Company has commenced the redeveloped of a hydropower plant at Sahamamy that was last operated in 2005.  Following further assessments of the plant during the current quarter, the redeveloped plant, expected to complete by end Q4 2021, is anticipated to meet Sahamamy's current power consumption of c.100Kw resulting in an estimated ongoing saving of c.10% in the operating cost per ton of output.  The Company is also accelerating further studies and detailed planning on the back of the earlier conducted prefeasibility studies for additional c.900Kw hydropower capacity prospects to supply 100% renewable energy generated power to the next two modules as well.

Notably, the Company has seen improved monthly sales, which indicate that the Sahamamy operations are moving out of the impacts of the pandemic.  The average monthly sales for January and February 2021 improved 63% at an average price of US$855 per MT from the average of nine-month period from April 2020 to December 2020 at an average price of US$776 per MT.

To take advantage of the strong demand for its products, the Company continues to advance its strategy to increase its production capacity of high-quality flake graphite concentrate with up to 96% purity to 84,000 tpa by 2024 from the current 3,000 tpa produced at Sahamamy and sold to customers globally.  In line with this, the Company is on track to commission Vatomina in Q2 2021 and build its production to 9,000 tpa having commenced the final phase of construction for the first module; this will take the capacity across both projects to 12,000 tpa.

The various workstreams initiated in Madagascar across the projects (see RNS released dated 4 January 2021) continue to progress:

· Construction activities for the upgraded 9,000 tpa Vatomina processing plant and development of related infrastructure in Vatomina continue. The new mining fleet, processing plant and utility equipment and materials shipped for the project, started arriving at the project site from February 2020.

· Acquired additional land surface rights for the mineralised and other operational use areas bringing the total to c.120 hectares from c.37.5 hectares in the current quarter, with the balance c.36 hectares of the current target in the process of completion.

· Hiring of both local and expat additional human resources with support for grant of work Visa's by the Government of Madagascar continues meeting all human resource requirements.

· Construction of the new road connecting the Vatomina and Sahamamy projects is progressing with first four-wheel vehicular movement expected to start by end of March 2021.

· As announced on 18 February 2021 with engagement of SRK Consulting, the next phase of exploration activities to upgrade and expand the existing mineral resource inventory across both projects have begun.

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.

** ENDS **

For further information, please visit https://www.tirupatigraphite.co.uk/ or contact:

Tirupati Graphite Plc Puruvi Poddar	[phone]
Optiva Securities Limited (Broker) Daniel Ingram	[phone]
St Brides Partners Ltd (Financial PR) Isabel de Salis / Cosima Akerman	[phone]

Notes

Tirupati Graphite Plc is a revenue-generative, multi-asset, multi-jurisdictional, fully integrated producer and developer of high-grade natural flake graphite, speciality graphite and graphene, which captures the entire value chain.  With a unique set of properties, graphite has diverse applications with multiple growth streams and graphene forms the new generation of 2D materials. In support of this, the Company places a special emphasis on "green" applications, including renewable energy generation, energy storage and composites, 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; 3,000 tpa of high-quality flake graphite concentrate with up to 96% purity is currently being produced and sold to customers globally, and this 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 processes and produces speciality graphite for use in hi-tech applications like lithium-ion batteries, fire retardants and composites. Its specialty graphite processing operations include the 1,200 tpa Patalganga Project, which was commissioned in July 2019 to manufacture and sell CARBOFLAMEX®, a trademarked fire-retardant expandable graphite product.  At the next stage of development, Patalganga shall further be expanded to 4,800 tpa capacity with capabilities to also produce high purity and micronised graphite, so increasing market and product reach by 2021. TSG has developed unique green processing technologies for manufacturing these advanced materials.

After establishing itself in the specialty graphite markets through the Patalganga Project, an additional 24,000 tpa specialty graphite processing facility is to be established in two 12,000 tpa phases.  The plant will produce expandable, high purity, micronised and spherical graphite.  The west coast of India has been chosen as the location and a detailed feasibility study has been completed.  TSG is also in the process of establishing the Tirupati Graphene and Mintech Research Centre, a state-of-the-art R&D centre focussed on manufacturing graphene, developing its applications, and further providing environmentally friendly technologies consultancy for mineral processing.  Land acquisition is in progress in Bhubaneswar, India, and a detailed feasibility study completed.

 

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