Modern Mining September 2021

GRAPHITE

Tirupati Graphite plc has completed the installation and commissioning of the first 9 000 tpa flake graphite module at its Vatomina project, which brings the company’s total production capacity in Madagascar to 12 000 tpa. This, CEO Shishir Poddar tells Modern Mining, is an important milestone towards the company’s target to reach total production capacity of 84 000 tpa by 2024. By Munesu Shoko . Commissioning of Vatomina quadruples

I n a major milestone that brings both its Mada­ gascan projects into operation and advances the company on its journey to becoming a global sup- plier of sought-after Madagascan flake graphite, Tirupati Graphite plc has installed and commissioned its first 9 000 tpa flake graphite module at its Vatomina project in Madagascar. Equipment testing, dry and wet commissioning trials have been completed successfully, allowing initiation of ore feed and start of sellable production at start-up ore feed rate of 15 tonnes per hour (tph), which is 50% of the plant rated capacity. However, ore feed rate is being progressively increased up to full rated plant capacity. Stockpiling of finished products has commenced in preparation for the first shipment to fulfil pre-orders received by the company from customers in Europe, the United States and Asia. At the time of writing, the first shipment was expected within two weeks, thus generating first revenues from Vatomina. Commendable achievement Shishir Poddar, CEO of Tirupati Graphite, is delighted

to have completed the commissioning of the first of four modules at Vatomina. This marks the latest in a series of investments to increase production of high-quality graphite from the company’s projects in Madagascar to support world demand and con- tinue the expansion of its production capacity up to 84 000 tpa by 2024. “This is a commendable achievement for the company given the procurement and logistics chal- lenges 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 oper- ation and advances us on our journey of becoming a material global supplier of sought-after Madagascan flake graphite,” he says. “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 capac- ity (4x increase from current) now operational, we expect the unit cost of production to be improved,

Shishir Poddar, CEO of Tirupati Graphite.

Below right: The capacity of the first module at Vatomina was upscaled to 9 000 tpa in February 2021, in response to increased demand of graphite. Below: Tirupati Graphite plc has installed and commissioned its first 9 000 tpa flake graphite module at its Vatomina project in Madagascar.

18  MODERN MINING  September 2021