Fully integrated, natural and specialty graphite and graphene company Tirupati Graphite is progressing work to increase its overall capacity to 84 000 t/y by 2024.
The focus is on its Sahamamy and Vatomina projects in Madagascar.
At Sahamamy, Tirupati has started the area grading and work for the second 18 000 t/y module to take capacity to 21 000 t/y in the first quarter of 2022; while Vatomina remains on track to commission upscaled 9 000 t/y operations over the next three weeks.
Tirupati has also progressed construction activities for a 100 kW hydropower plant and is advancing plans for an additional about 900 kW of hydropower capacity, while simultaneously continuing the second-stage exploration programmes at both projects, targeting an upgrade and update of the existing mineral resources and delineation of new mineralised zones.
Tirupati CEO Shishir Poddar says the company is looking to build capacity at its primary operations to 12 000 t/y in the immediate term and enhance it to 30 000 t/y by the first quarter of 2022.
“Having historically established a [bigger than] 50% operating margin with a basket price realisation of about $835 from the current 3 000 t/y capacity operation in Sahamamy, we believe that the enhanced capacity will go a long way towards reaching our goal of being profitable at the corporate level,” Poddar comments.
On a wider level, this is part of Tirupati’s strategy to become a key supplier of this critical material and to develop advanced materials that contribute to the mitigation of climate change.