Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Australian mining company Battery Minerals on Wednesday announced that the Mozambican government has granted a mining licence for its Balama Central graphite project in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
Under the project’s plan, 50,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate will be produced per annum.
Following the granting of the licence, Battery Minerals Chairperson David Flanagan said, “this is another important milestone for the Balama Central graphite project”. The company intends to sell the project and its Montepuez graphite project to the British company Tirupati Graphite for 12.5 million US dollars in cash and shares.
Commenting on the government’s green light for the project, Tirupati’s chief executive Shishir Poddar noted that “the granting of the mining licence for the Balama Central graphite project is great news, which further enhances the value proposition of the acquisition for Tirupati”.
He added, “both the Montepuez and Balama Central projects now hold granted mining licenses which, on completion of the acquisition, advances Tirupati on its journey to becoming a material supplier to the high growth EV and battery markets and playing a part in the global energy transition”.
For Poddar, “we also take this news as a positive indicator that Mozambique is starting to open back up for business following the pandemic, along with the rest of the world. We look forward to completing the acquisition over the coming months”.
Mozambique is a major global source of graphite with Syrah Resources’ project, which is also located at Balama, having the capacity to produce 350,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate per year over its mine life of fifty years. Meanwhile, Triton Minerals is developing its graphite project in Cabo Delgado with a planned production of 50,000 tonnes of concentrate per year.
Graphite is a form of carbon that is highly valued due to its properties as a conductor of electricity. It is used in batteries and fuel cells and is the basis for the “miracle material” graphene, which is the strongest material ever measured, with vast potential for use in the electronics industries.
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