Triton Minerals signs binding agreement for graphite production
London, 9 Nov (AIM) – The Australian mining company Triton Minerals, which holds the rights to graphite deposits in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, on 9 November announced that it has signed a binding agreement for the sale of its product.
The agreement with the Chinese company Yichang Xincheng Graphite covers up to the entire 10,000 tonnes per annum production from its pilot plant. According to Triton, this “materially advances and significantly de-risks the plan to bring the company’s flagship Ancuabe project into production in the short term”.
The agreement lasts five years and guarantees a minimum price of one thousand US dollars a tonne with an option to renew for a further five years covering another 50,000 tonnes.
According to Triton’s managing director, Andrew Frazer, “this binding commercial agreement is with a graphite specialist organisation that has mined, manufactured, and sold expandable graphite products for nearly ten years. We are both proud and fortunate to be associated with a world-renowned, leading graphite company that supplies materials to some of the world’s most distinguished electronics and technology companies”.
Triton’s ultimate goal is to expand the Ancuabe project to produce 60,000 tonnes per annum of high purity large flake graphite over a mine life of 27 years.
Mozambique is a major global source of graphite with Syrah Resources’ project at Balama, also in Cabo Delgado, having the capacity to produce 350,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate per year over its mine life of fifty years.
Graphite is a highly valued form of carbon 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. In addition, expandable graphite can be pressed into sheets for use as a heat and fire retardant.
(AIM)