JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Bass Metals, which was set to emerge as Australia’s only graphite miner with the acquisition of the Graphmada mine in Madagascar, on Thursday unveiled its new management line-up to drive its graphite production and expansion strategy.

The company, which also announced a A$5.5-million capital raising to improve production and start expansion studies, appointed Tim McManus as CEO and David Round as CFO.

McManus was previously the CEO of ASX-listed and Tasmania-focused mining developer Elementos and had over 25 years’ experience as a mining professional. Round was an accountant with many years’ corporate experience in the resources sector. He was previously CFO of Ironbank Zinc and Wolf Minerals.

Bass nonexecutive chairperson Rick Anthon said that McManus and Round would drive the expansion and production at Graphmada, which the company was buying from Stratmin Resources, while evolving the firm into a leading integrated graphite business.

Anthon reported that Bass’s immediate priority was to expand production much higher in the near term as Graphmada’s product was well suited to the growing markets of batteries, space and nuclear technology.

“Unlike many current graphite projects, Graphmada is a highly developed site and has been significantly derisked with an historic sunk cost of more than A$16-million to date.

“Not only will we be mining under continuous mining operations from next month, but the mine has immediate potential to expand on its total 2015 output of 1 500 t graphite concentrate,” he said.

While there were currently no operating graphite mines in Australia, Australian companies like Bass were spearheading the push internationally to convert many promising overseas graphite deposits or historic mining operations, into emerging routes to market to service the battery driven and rapidly expanding graphite and lithium sectors globally.

“The mine transaction positions Bass Metals as an immediate global play as Graphmada has existing supply contracts into Europe, India and the US for high-purity, large flake product via secure offtake deals with global graphite traders,” Anthon said.

Bass paid Stratmin A$1-million to acquire a 6.25% stake in Graphmada late last year. The company would secure full ownership through a Tranche 1 A$1.5-million payment, the issue of $750 000 worth of Bass ordinary shares to Stratmin at 1c a share and the grant to Stratmin of a net smelter royalty of 2.5% with payments not to exceed A$5-million.

Under second and third tranche payments, Bass would issue a further A$3-million worth of shares on achieving production of 1 250 t/m of graphite concentrate over three consecutive months; followed by the issue of a further A$5-million worth of Bass shares when production hits 2 500 t/m over three consecutive months.