Australian miner Triton Minerals last week announced that it was seeking A$11.3-million to drive forward its plan to develop a vertically integrated graphite operation in Mozambique. It also announced that one of its shareholders, GMP Securities Australia, had agreed to partially underwrite the fundraising effort to the tune of A$4-million, subject to conditions precedent and the other normal terms and conditions that are usual in such agreements.

What Triton seeks to do is to issue one share for every five shares held by the current shareholders, at a price of A$0.15 per share. This will be a non-renounceable entitlement issue. In addition, each qualifying shareholder will be offered a free “attaching option” for every two shares they acquiresd under this offer. Each option willbe exercisable at A$0.20 and will expire in March 2017.

The offer of the entitlement issue will close on December 11.

Triton is developing graphite projects in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province. They are Ancuabe, Balama North and Balama South. Activities started in 2013 and the miner owns 60% of each project but can increase this to 80% once mining starts. The main focus of the company is currently on the Nicanda Hill resource, in the Balama North project area.

The capital obtained from this offer will be used to fund several activities. One of these will be the definition of the resources at Ancuaba and at the P66 zone of Nicanda Hill. Another will be to expand a definitive feasibility study to include Ancuabe, P66 and joint venture (JV) manufacturing plants in Mozambique and China. Finally, some of the money will be used to start construction of the Mozambique manufacturing facility along with Triton’s Chinese JV partner, Yichang Xincheng Graphite.

Separately, and a day later, Triton also announced results from a first, limited, drilling programme in the P66 zone of Nicanda West. This is located about 1.2 km north-west of the main Nicanda Hill deposit. The company describes the results as “encour-aging and of material importance”

Nicanda West has an estimated minimum strike length of 1 000 m but, so far, only 400 m has been drill-tested, with 17 drill holes. Assay results were received for six of these. The graphite is of a high grade and the results so far show that it maintains its grade both along strike and down-dip. The deposit is dominated by flake sizes ranging from large to jumbo. The deposit is unique in the Balama North area but is similar to the deposit at Ancuabe. The company believes that Nicanda West is shaping up as an “ideal complement” to Nicanda Hill. Moreover, battery-grade (that is, 97.7% total graphitic carbon – TGC) concentrate can be produced from Nicanda West material using simple flotation processes.

“The initial assays have confirmed grades that are expected for this [type] of deposit and the predominance of high-value large-flake graphite highlights the diversity of high-quality graphite concentrates that may be produced from an integrated Nicanda mining operation.

“The wide thicknesses of mineralisation and consistency of grade, combined with the lack of any substantial overburden, present an ideal openpit mining opportunity which is located on the very doorstep of the world’s largest graphite and vanadium resource at Nicanda Hill,” high-lighted Triton MD Brad Boyle.

“The proximity of Nicanda West to the main Nicanda Hill resource allows for the sharing of infrastructure and processing facilities, thus improving overall project economics. Producing Nicanda West concentrates that meet the fundamental battery-grade specification of >97% TGC is another important achievement for Triton.”