Fully integrated specialist graphite producer and graphene and advanced materials developer Tirupati Graphite has entered into a binding agreement to acquire the entire issued share capital of Suni Resources.
Suni Resources holds the Mozambique portfolio of graphite assets of ASX-listed Battery Minerals, including the construction initiated Montepuez graphite project and the advanced feasibility study stage Balama Central graphite project.
The acquisition includes all associated assets, infrastructure, permits, licences and intellectual property on both projects for A$12.5-million (about £6.6-million) in cash and shares.
The acquisition is subject to, besides others, approval by Battery Minerals shareholders and the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy in Mozambique.
Battery Minerals, together with its subsidiary Rovuma Resourcesto, sold its Mozambique graphite assets, through the sale of all the shares in its subsidiary Suni Resources, it clarified in a separate statement on Tuesday.
Battery Minerals will receive Tirupati Graphite ordinary shares valued at $11-million and cash of $1.5-million, and will, through its shareholding in Tirupati Graphite, maintain a free carried exposure to the two Mozambican graphite projects and add exposure to Tirupati Graphite’s other production and development assets.
Meanwhile, Tirupati noted that Mozambique is home to commercially significant deposits of graphite and a key determinant of mining opportunities in Mozambique is the global energy transition, which has driven demand for certain minerals needed for electric vehicles and vehicles that rely on hydrogen fuel cells.
Mozambique is “well-positioned” to take advantage of this market boom, with mining operations already expanding across Cabo Delgado where the projects are located, as well as Gaza, Manica, Maputo, Nampula, Niassa, Tete and Zambezia.
Tirupati on August 17 said Montepuez is an in-construction high-grade flake graphite project while Balama Central is an advanced-stage feasibility-ready project located in an established graphite-producing district of Mozambique.
The acquisition will also provide resource diversity to support the company’s strategy of being a global leader in flake graphite, adding substantial Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resources and reserves to complement its existing resources of high-quality large flake graphite in Madagascar.
Besides others, the acquisition will enable the company to achieve its stated strategy of diversifying country risk with a second primary resource location and provide advantages of higher-grade deposits with levels of between 9% and 10% thermally converted graphene (TGC).
The medium and small flake graphite of between 60% and 70% that is anticipated from the projects, which are preferred by certain end-users in the lithium-ion battery anode and are a feedstock for micronised graphite, enable Tirupati to prioritise its premium jumbo and large-flake Madagascan resources to premium markets for these products and applications, the company said in its statement.
Tirupati CEO Shishir Poddar added that “the world is starting its scramble for supplies of critical raw materials of which graphite is one; this is nothing short of a game-changing acquisition for us to build our arsenal and seize every opportunity coming our way to becoming a global leader in flake graphite”.
Poddar noted that, strategically, the Montepuez and Balama Central deposits are world-class and will add 152-million metric tonnes at 8.5% TGC of resources to the existing estimated 25-million tonnes of resources Tirupati holds in Madagascar.