A leading Australian developer and explorer, with a focus on battery minerals, has received a mining licence for its flagship project in Mozambique.
Battery Minerals announced this week that the Mozambican Government has granted a mining licence for the development of its Montepuez graphite project, located in Mozambique.
The licence will enable the company to embark on Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the project, which will see a production level of 100,000 tpa of graphite, zinc/lead and copper. With the Mining Licence granted, binding offtake agreements in place and work now having started on the ground, Montepuez is on track for commissioning in the December Quarter this year.
“This is a significant milestone for the Company as it means we have approvals for stages 1 and 2 of our Montepuez graphite project and for production of at least 100,000 tonnes per annum of graphite concentrate.”
“We now move to accelerate construction on all fronts and join the ranks of producers,” Battery Minerals Managing Director David Flanagan said: “I would like to thank Minister Ernesto Max Tonela, his staff and the Mozambican Government for granting our Mining Licence and their efficient processing of our Mining Licence application.
The Montepuez Stage1 is a ~50,000tpa graphite flake project. The current project life is 20 years, which BAT will only look to grow.
With the granting of the mining licence, the company will develop a production flow of 100,000tpa through the execution of Montepuez Stage 2.
The global graphite market is estimated to be 2.5Mtpa and key industry analysis groups predict this will grow significantly to exceed 4Mtpa within 6 years.
An important part of this market is the supply of graphite for anode production as an essential component in rapidly growing production of lithium-ion batteries.
Source: Mining Global
