Tirupati Graphite has started production of natural flake graphite concentrate from a newly built processing plant at its Sahamamy project in Madagascar.

The Sahamamy project is designed to process 450ktpy run-of-mine graphite ore and has two pre-concentrate plants (400ktpy) along with a final processing plant with an 18ktpy nameplate capacity of graphite concentrate containing >95% total carbon content. Tirupati is now focussing on production ramp-up to bring its processing plant to an output capacity of 80% by March 2023.

The commencement of Tirupati’s operations at Sahamamy has increased the company’s total production capacity in Madagascar to 30ktpy graphite concentrate. This includes Tirupati’s Vatomina mine which started operations in December 2022 with a 12ktpy graphite concentrate capacity. In recent years, Tirupati has been increasing its investments in integrating operations within the graphite supply chain.  The company has an agreement with Suni Resources to buy the Montepuez and Balama Central project in Mozambique for US$9.1M and commenced expandable and micronised graphite production in 2019 at its Patalganga Facility in India. The facility has the potential to support the growing demand for graphite and reduce Tirupati’s African operations' dependence on China for downstream processing.