JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Madagascar-focused exploration company StratMin expects improvements to its beneficiation plant to boost the company’s ability to polish graphite and, therefore, increase grades.

The Aim-listed company experienced limited screening capacity over December, but expects the challenge to be resolved later this month once the final new screen is delivered to Madagascar and installed.

Further improvements within the beneficiation plant are also expected in January as additional milling capacity is brought online to assist with grade improvements, StratMin said in a statement to shareholders on Thursday.

“Both these upgrades will significantly affect the quality of our end-product,” StratMin MD Manoli Yannaghas pointed out.

Average graphite grades produced from the company’s Loharano and Antisrabe permits increased to 93.14% in the “shortened month” of December, during which StratMin produced 68 t of dry mixed graphite after processing 288 t of wet graphite at its beneficiation plant. The plant currently has the capacity to produce up to 350 t/m of high-grade flake graphite.

“The focus for December was on achieving production volume prior to closing the mine for the holiday period,” the company explained, noting that 48 t was sold during December, which was lower than the expected monthly sales rate as purchase orders were delayed. An uplift in monthly sales was, therefore, forcast for the first few months of 2015.

However, general plant performance and flotation capacity were in line with expectations.

The company started production at the Loharano graphite project in early 2014. It is located in eastern Madagascar, about 15 km west of the coast and 20 km south-west of Brickaville. The mine sits 2 km from the main road and 2 hours from Tamatave, the country’s largest port, which handles 90% of Madagascar's imports and exports.

An increasingly important commodity, graphite is used in an expansive array of industrial applications and is expected to become vital to next-generation applications owing to its chemical, electrical and thermal properties.