Specialist graphite and graphene company Tirupati Graphite on April 1 successfully completed the acquisition of Suni Resources, the Mozambique incorporated subsidiary of ASX-listed Battery Minerals (BAT).
The acquisition includes all assets, infrastructure, permits, licences and intellectual property (IP) associated with the Montepuez project, and the fully permitted definitive feasibility study-ready, Balama Central project, in Mozambique, held by Suni.
On August 17, 2021, Tirupati announced that it had signed an agreement with BAT for the acquisition of the entire issued capital of Suni and assignment of BAT’s IP rights associated with the project for a total aggregate consideration of A$12.5-million, comprising A$1.5-million in cash and A$11-million in ordinary shares.
The acquisition includes the entire equity capital of Suni, shareholder debt advanced by BAT to Suni and the battery technical information.
The Montepuez and Balama Central projects are said to be strong additions to Tirupati’s existing portfolio of graphite assets. They are advanced-stage projects in a jurisdiction and location that hosts one of the largest flake graphite producing projects in the world and are complementary to the company’s existing portfolio of graphite assets in Madagascar, Tirupati points out.
It reiterates that the addition of these projects will be instrumental in providing the company with the required resources to achieve its ambition of providing 8% of the estimated global flake graphite demand of five-million tonnes a year by 2030.
“Importantly, through acquiring the Balama Central and Montepuez projects in Mozambique, we are diversifying our locations, providing access to a new region, as well as providing buyers with an additional source of graphite outside of China, where global supply is currently heavily concentrated.
“Moving forward, our focus will be on optimising processing technology, flow sheet and the investment required for the projects, continuing the construction of the first module at Montepuez, and drawing on our decades of expertise and history of building flake graphite projects.
“As a reminder, Tirupati’s capital intensity and operating costs are within the bottom quartile of the industry and the completion of this acquisition further allows Tirupati to robustly engage with the global energy storage markets,” says CEO Shishir Poddar.