The British graphite company Tirupati Graphite last week revealed that it has raised five million pounds (about 6.1 million US dollars, at the current exchange rate) through an institutional and private placing of 14,285,714 new ordinary shares at 35 pence each.
Tirupati explained in a note to investors that the funds will ensure that the company has the financial resources to meet all its obligations to complete the 3.5 million pound acquisition of Suni Resources along with working capital to develop Suni’s graphite mining projects.
Suni is the Mozambican subsidiary of Battery Minerals which holds concessions to mine graphite at Balama and Montepuez in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
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The government regulator, the National Mining Institute, has confirmed that it intends to approve the transfer of the mining concessions from Suni to Tirupati after it is provided with a bank guarantee for 76 million meticais (about 1.2 million dollars) to cover the granting of the mining concession for the Balama Central project and the settlement of capital gains tax of around 107 million meticais.
According to the chief executive of Tirupati Graphite, Shishir Poddar, “we are delighted to have received institutional and other investor support for the fundraise, which provides us with the financial resources to meet the obligations towards the completion of the Suni transaction”.
Poddar explained that “the Balama Central and Montepuez Projects which are held by Suni Resources, are both fully licensed for construction to 150,000 tonnes per annum flake graphite production capacity. At Montepuez, construction of the first 50,000 tonnes per annum module was initiated by Battery with plant development and tailing pond construction completed and base camp residential facilities for 100 persons built”.
He added that “we are excited to now be in a position to push on with the completion of the Suni acquisition which will enable us to add these projects into the Tirupati Graphite portfolio and we believe the acquisition of these projects will put the company in a strong position to progress its ongoing discussions with the electric vehicle sector in addition to others”.
In a separate statement, the chairperson of the board of Battery Minerals, David Flanagan, said “we would also like to thank the Mozambican government for their assistance in this process which will ultimately deliver a new world-class graphite project in Mozambique”.
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Mozambique is a major global source of the strategic mineral graphite with Syrah Resources’ project, which is also located at Balama, having the capacity to produce 350,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate per year over its mine life of fifty years. In addition, Triton Minerals has confirmed that it is to develop its graphite project, also in Cabo Delgado, with a planned production of 50,000 tonnes of concentrate per year.
Graphite is a form of carbon that is highly valued due to its properties as a conductor of electricity. It is used in batteries and fuel cells and is the basis for the “miracle material” graphene, which is the strongest material ever measured, with vast potential for use in the electronics industries.
