Specialist graphite producer Tirupati Graphite, with operations in Madagascar and India, has announced a placing with institutional and other investors of 11-million ordinary shares to raise an aggregate gross amount of £10-million.
Certain directors of the company are subscribing for shares pursuant to the placing.
The net proceeds of the placing will primarily be used to expedite the company’s modular medium-term development plan (MTDP) to take advantage of the strong demand for its products.
The company will accelerate development of the next 18 000 t/y module at the Sahamamy primary flake graphite project, in Madagascar, with all requisite approvals already in place.
Total capacity across both Tirupati’s Madagascan projects is anticipated to be 30 000 t/y by the first quarter of 2022, a ten-fold increase since the company’s admission to the official list in December 2020.
It will also be used to redevelop hydropower facilities at Sahamamy to meet the power requirements of current operations through renewable energy and carry out a feasibility study for about 900 kW of additional hydropower facilities to meet most of the power requirements for the anticipated 30 000 t/y capacity.
Moreover, it will increase the capacity of the company’s downstream specialty graphite projects from 1 200 t/y to 16 200 t/y by the second half of 2022 with the setup of an integrated, multiproduct 15 000 t/y speciality graphite project.
It will also assist in fast-tracking installation of industrial-scale graphene manufacturing capabilities at the Graphene & Technology Centre to capitalise on near-term commercialisation opportunities, and for general working capital purposes.
“We are delighted to have received such strong support in completing this oversubscribed placing, which further strengthens our confidence in our strategy and enables us to fast-track our development plans to fulfil the increased demand for our graphite products,” says CEO Shishir Poddar.
“Having developed a suite of graphite products spanning a variety of applications, utilising our unique sustainable processes and technologies, we are ideally positioned to competitively support the fast-emerging green graphite supply chain.
“The potential green economy applications for our graphite products provide us with the opportunity to play an important role in the global efforts to reduce carbon emissions and the impacts of climate change,” he adds.
Poddar notes that with increasing global adoption of electric mobility, Tirupati is confident that the timing is opportune for the company to expedite its developments.
“The progress we have made within our graphene division is particularly exciting and we are poised to deliver International Organisation for Standardisation standard graphene on a commercial scale to buyers in the aerospace, defence, battery storage, electronics and other key sectors working on graphene-based applications.
“Furthermore, there are several other diverse industries and applications sectors such as flame retardants, thermal management and composite materials which provide multiple growth streams for the company,” he states.