Specialist graphite and graphene company Tirupati Graphite has raised £1.5-million in a private placement of convertible loan notes through its broker Optiva Securities as a first tranche of an overall £3-million capital raise.

The proceeds from this initial tranche will be used to fund the upfront cash payment obligation of A$1.5-million (£860 000) to Battery Minerals for the acquisition of Suni Resources – the Mozambique subsidiary of Battery Minerals holding the construction-initiated Montepuez project and advanced-stage Balama Central project.

The proceeds will also go towards progressing Tirupati’s 18 000 t/y flake graphite facility at its Sahamamy project, in Madagascar, which is under construction and due to reach completion by the end of September, as well as for general working capital requirements.

Tirupati executive chairperson Shishir Poddar says it is the company’s stated target to produce about 8% of global flake graphite.

“The flake graphite markets remains on course to grow to above five-million tonnes of annual demand by the turn of the decade, thus securing sufficient resources to build out to 400 000 t over the coming years has been a key objective of the company and will be achieved with the acquisition of the Mozambique assets,” the company notes.

Tirupati and Optiva remain engaged to raise the balance of funding in a second tranche to meet the mandatory requirement to provide a bank guarantee for the Balama Central licence as part of the Mozambique acquisition and for working capital for Tirupati’s expanding operations in Madagascar.

In Madagascar, Poddar reports, Tirupati remains on track to build up to 84 000 t/y of capacity over the next couple of years and is near reaching 30 000 t/y of installed capacity.

“We remain thankful to the Battery Minerals team for their continued efforts and support in respect of the pending acquisition.

“It will be our priority to get on the ground post completion as soon as possible and take the extensive work done by them through to fruition, which we firmly believe shall be in the interest of all stakeholders,” says Poddar.