Tirupati Graph. Regulatory News (TGR)

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20 January 2022

Tirupati Graphite plc

('Tirupati' or the 'Company')

Transformational Flake Graphite Processing Technology

Tirupati Graphite plc (TGR.L, TGRHF.OTCQX), the specialist graphite and graphene company developing sustainable new age materials, is pleased to announce a technological milestone which will significantly improve performance of the Company's primary graphite and downstream specialty graphite production processes.

In July 2021, the Tirupati Graphene & Mintech Research Centre ("TGMRC") established a pilot scale version of its unique Column Flotation System ("CFS") which it developed for use across the Company's primary and downstream specialty graphite production plants.

After concluding successful trials, Tirupati will be shipping the first commercial scale CFS with a 1.5 MT per hour capacity, for installation and operation at its 9,000 tpa Vatomina graphite production plant in Madagascar.

The CFS developed by the Company has demonstrated a number of advantages over conventional flotation cell technologies commonly used in graphite processing including the ability to:

o reduce power consumption during the flotation stage of the process by c.40%;

o eliminate corrosion and wear in flotation thereby reducing maintenance, costs and production downtimes; and

o reduce the number of processing/floatation stages required to achieve desired graphite purity levels thereby lowering overall costs of production.

The Company will be incorporating the new CFS in its upcoming capacity expansion projects replacing three out of four flotation stages. This can be achieved without changing the planned timelines and is expected to deliver significant commercial and operational improvements, further strengthening the Company's status as a lowest cost quartile producer of natural flake graphite. Significant benefits on cost and efficiency are expected in the upcoming 18,000 tpa Sahamamy expansion due to complete at the end of Q2 2022 and in the follow on 54,000 tpa of additional capacity planned to be built in Madagascar by 2024. The Company will update the markets further in due course.

Shishir Poddar, Executive Chairman of Tirupati Graphite, said:

"Global flake graphite demand continues to grow driven by the acceleration in the transition to electric mobility and growth in other flake graphite consumption arenas such as flame retardant and thermal management applications. As such, we are increasingly confident in our strategy of rapidly increasing our production capacity.

"Our dedicated research centre in India which is the technological backbone supporting the Group's operations, has enabled us to commercialise our Column Flotation System with many unique features allowing us to further reduce our costs and increase efficiencies at our primary flake graphite operations in Madagascar, downstream specialty graphite operations in India and, in due course, our primary flake graphite projects in Mozambique as well.

"We believe in continued innovation and technological improvements and continue to make progress towards being an important contributor to the energy transition economy and in the process seize the opportunities for creating sustainable values for our shareholders."

Enquiries: 

https://www.tirupatigraphite.co.uk/ 

Notes to Editors

Tirupati Graphite Plc is the specialist graphite and graphene company developing sustainable new age materials. With a unique set of properties, graphite has diverse applications with multiple growth streams and graphene forms the new generation of 2D and advanced materials. The Company places a special emphasis on "green" applications, including renewable energy and energy efficiency, energy storage, thermal management, and advanced materials development, and is committed to ensuring its operations are sustainable as well. 

The Company's operations include primary mining and processing in Madagascar, where the Company operates two key projects, Sahamamy and Vatomina; 3,000 tpa of high-quality flake graphite concentrate with up to 96% purity is currently being produced and sold to customers globally, with an additional 9,000 tpa capacity expected to be commissioned soon, planned to increase to 84,000 tpa by 2024 as per the Company's modular medium-term development plan. 

In India, through Tirupati Speciality Graphite Private Limited ('TSG'), with whom the Company has a binding acquisition agreement subject to regulatory approvals, Tirupati is developing a suite of speciality graphite for use in hi-tech applications like lithium-ion batteries, fire retardants, thermal management, and composites. Its current operations include the 1,200 tpa Patalganga Project, focused on manufacturing the Company's trademarked expandable graphite products CARBOFLAMEX® and GrafEN 45545™. TSG is further expanding the Patalganga Project to 4,800 tpa and developing the 30,000 tpa specialty graphite project in two 15,000 tpa modules which will include capabilities to manufacture high-purity, expandable, micronized and spherical graphite and using its unique green processing technologies for the manufacturing of these advanced materials. 

TSG has also established and continues to develop the Tirupati Graphene and Mintech Research Centre, a state-of-the-art R&D centre focussed on manufacturing graphene, developing its applications and advanced materials using graphene, and further providing environmentally friendly technologies consultancy for mineral processing.