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Wednesday 2 February 2022

Tirupati Graphite plc

('Tirupati' or the 'Company')

Update following Tropical Storm Ana

Tirupati Graphite plc announces an update regarding its operations in Madagascar following the passage of Tropical Storm Ana. The Company would like to express its deepest condolences to all those who have been affected in Madagascar, Mozambique, and Malawi; in particular, those who lost their lives.

In the areas located nearby the Company's projects, one of the most severe consequences of the storm has been the impact on access to fresh water. In recognition, and to mitigate this risk from future storms in the region, Tirupati has committed to drilling and establishing a number of bore wells for the communities around its projects, which will help to ensure that the surrounding communities are able to access safe and clean drinking water.

The storm, which damaged infrastructure largely across the north and central eastern parts of Madagascar, also disrupted road connectivity to Tirupati's Vatomina and Sahamamy projects. However, neither project suffered any material damage. The Company quickly suspended operations, which have now resumed. The timely suspension of operations helped to protect the lives, property and livelihoods of its employees and their families and other stakeholders in the region impacted by the storm.

Due to the disruption and the forecast of a further storm in the coming week, the Company's expected flake graphite production for the second half of the financial year to 31 March 2022 has been revised from c.4,000 tons to between 3,200-3,500 tons (FY2021: 1,718 tons). The Company continues to anticipate strong production growth thereafter with its forecast production for the financial year to 31 March 2023 remaining unchanged at c.20,000 tons.

This growth will be driven by the completion and commissioning of the new 18,000 tpa plant at Sahamamy which will take total primary flake graphite production capacity at its upstream projects in Madagascar to 30,000 tpa from Q2 FY 2023, before reaching 84,000 tpa by the end of FY 2024. 

Shishir Poddar, Executive Chairman of Tirupati Graphite, said:

"All of us at Tirupati Graphite were deeply affected by the news from Madagascar, and would like to offer our sincere condolences to those who have lost loved ones during Tropical Storm Ana. We are very grateful that no harm has come to Tirupati's employees or indeed to its operations, the original designs and engineering of which took into account possible occurences of such adverse weather.

"We are focused on ensuring that communities around our operations are able to recover from the impacts of this storm and have committed to developing facilities for clean and safe drinking water in the near-term to eliminate the dependence on surface water in some of the local areas by the communities.

"We would also like to commend our in-country leadership team for their swift actions in planning for and managing the challenges of this adverse tropical storm enabling us to avoid material damage to our facilities and to re-start operations immediately following the receding of the storm which limited the impact on production."

Enquiries: 

https://www.tirupatigraphite.co.uk/ 

About Tirupati Graphite

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; 12,000 tpa installed capacity of high-quality flake graphite concentrate with up to 96% purity is currently being produced and sold to customers globally, planned to increase to 84,000 tpa by the end 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.