London-listed Tirupati Graphite is fast progressing its flake graphite projects in Madagascar – Sahamamy and Vatomina, including the development of hydropower facilities at Sahamamy.

Tirupati is advancing various work streams to increase primary flake graphite capacity in Madagascar to 12 000 t/y.

To this end, the company is on track to commission enhanced 9 000 t/y operations at Vatomina during the second quarter, while a new road is being build to connect the two projects.

Tirupati CEO Shishir Poddar says this will enable the company to fast-track the development of markets for its three business units at this opportune time of strong and growing demand for primary flake graphite, besides enhancing its significance in the global graphite markets, excluding China.  

Tirupati ultimately aims to produce 84 000 t/y by 2024.

The company is also rebuilding an initial 100 kW hydropower facility at Sahamamy, which will save about 10% on operating costs per tonne of output and 50% in carbon emissions.

The hydropower plant was last operated in 2005 and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Tirupati is working toward an additional 900 kW hydropower capacity to provide 100% renewable power generation for the next two production modules at the project.

Meanwhile, the company reports that average monthly sales for the first two months of this year have improved by 63%, at an average price of $855/t, compared with the $776/t average price realised in the nine months ended December 31, 2020.

Poddar says that, increasingly, consumers and manufacturers are realising that zero carbon at use is just part of the story and that there is a need to look holistically at the processes along the whole supply chain. 

Accordingly, as highlighted by the strong demand for primary flake graphite, there is significant preference for the lowest-impact deposits around the world.

“With this in mind, we remain focused on delivering eco-friendly operations, and being a green source in the supply chain for electric vehicles and other green applications. Our hydropower renewable energy initiatives are part of this strategy, which will help us reduce our carbon footprint by almost 50% and also result in cost savings,” he points out.

“Having already demonstrated higher than 50% operating margins in the first year of our initial 3 000 t/y facility at Sahamamy and made progress despite the impacts of the pandemic, including continuing travel restrictions and logistics challenges, we look forward to continuing to enhance shareholder value at industry-low capital and operating costs,” Poddar adds.