Tirupati Graphite’s Vatomina mine begins commercial operations

2021-04-22

Apr. 21, 2021 - Tirupati Graphite has announced the opening of its second mine in Madagascar at the Vatomina Project, where it remains on track to start commissioning the first 9,000 tpa processing plant in Q2 2021.

Shishir Poddar, CEO of Tirupati Graphite, says, “The opening of the mine marks the beginning of commercial operations at the greenfield Vatomina project, taking us one step further towards our goal of increasing capacity in Madagascar to 30,000 tpa by Q1 2022 and 84,000 tpa by 2024.

“Furthermore, we are equally delighted that our new road between our two projects, Vatomina and Sahamamy, is now complete, providing them direct access to the National Highway and thereby helping us reduce our OPEX.

“As demonstrated by the huge support we received for our oversubscribed £10 million placing last week, investors are increasingly cognisant of graphite’s role in the green economy and energy transition. Given its unique properties that enable a multitude of green applications including its use in Li-ion batteries and flame retardants, the high-tech graphite industry continues to experience growing demand and tightening supply.

“We therefore believe a prolonged supply shortage is likely; the opening of our new Vatomina mine will go some way to plugging the supply gap with our high-quality natural flake graphite. We will continue to achieve milestones and update the market further as we focus on fast-tracking our developments across our three businesses.”