JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed graphite mining and production company StratMin has completed an exploration programme on the Mahefadok area adjacent to its existing Loharano mine and production facility, in Madagascar.

The miner on Thursday said testing had confirmed a large mineralised body with a strike extent of 1.5 km, which had pitting and trenching across a 150 m width.

“The deposit has similar geological characteristics to the existing Loharano deposit, from which the company is producing 94% carbon-in-graphite (CIG) flake graphite and is capable of sustaining a medium-scale mine and processing plant,” it added.

StratMin would proceed to a bankable feasibility study for a ten-year, 12 000 t/y high-grade flake graphite mine and processing plant at Mahefadok, which would be followed by a drilling programme, aimed at producing a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource, enabling mine design, scheduling and plant engineering to be completed.

“Our approach is focused on risk-mitigated growth with modular expansion of a size and scale we can comfortably control.

“We don't need to drill out massive resources; we know there is additional graphite in our portfolio and we will only invest capital proving it up as we need resources to meet expansion requirements. We understand that financiers need to see a minimum mine life and so we will meet those requirements to secure that source of lower cost capital for expansion,” StratMin MD Brett Boynton commented.
 
TIRUTAPI DEAL
The miner had also signed a binding strategic partnership and joint venture (JV) agreement with India-based graphite mining and processing group Tirupati Carbons & Chemicals Group to earn a 45% interest in its Tirupati Resources Mauritius subsidiary through a staged investment of $1.5-million.

The subsidiary held a 98% stake in Tirupati Madagascar Ventures SARL, which owned the Vatomaina graphite project, in Madagascar. The two companies would jointly fund the development of a 12 000 t/y graphite mine and processing facility at Vatomaina.

As part of the deal, Tirupati founder and MD Shishir Poddar would join the StratMin board as technical director, while the company would also provide technical expertise and collaborate on marketing and sales.

Further, Tirupati would make staged investment into StratMin.

“The combination of Tirupati’s technical expertise in graphite processing and StratMin’s current operations, growing resource base and access to capital markets, will help to unlock the full value of the Loharano, Mahefadok and Vatomaina projects to grow the group into a midtier graphite producer for the benefit of all stakeholders,” StratMin said.