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Mining exploration and development company Triton Minerals (TON) is leveraging its business opportunities within the renewable energy sector with a revamp of its graphite explorations at its flagship Ancuabe project in Mozambique.
As the renewable energy market has steadily increased over the past 12 months, Triton has chosen to desert its staged development strategy and is re-committing to its large-scale development strategy for Ancuabe.
The Triton board and its cornerstone investment partner, Shandong Yulong, have committed to processing up to 60,000 tonnes per year of graphite concentrate following an update to its 2017 definitive feasibility study (DFS).
Why graphite?
The shift to a clean energy system is set to increase the requirements for renewable minerals such as graphite, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and magnesium, which are crucial to battery performance.
Graphite is a conductor of electricity and heat and is chemically inert, meaning it remains unaffected by reagents and acids and can withstand extreme temperatures.
Graphite can be classified into three forms, flake, crystalline, and amorphous, depending on the location of the mineral and can be sourced globally in high quantities.
According to the International Energy Agency, the energy sector is emerging with force in renewable mineral markets, and clean energy technologies are becoming the fastest-growing segment of demand.
TON Executive Director Andrew Frazer said the past year marked genuine progress in developing the company’s flagship project in Mozambique.
“The company is encouraged by the outlook for graphite, noting there are supply shortages forecast from 2025 for both expandable and battery concentrates, with these markets having already seen a steady increase over the course of the past 12 months,” Mr Frazer said.
The Ancuabe Graphite project was granted regulatory approvals in May 2019 and is located 45 kilometres west of the northern Mozambique coastal port of Pemba on the Indian Ocean shoreline.
The Ancuabe graphite project
The Ancuabe Project lies in the graphite region of Cabo Delgado in northeastern Mozambique and lies adjacent to the operational AMG Graphite Kropfmühl (GK) mine.
Despite ongoing inflationary pressures impacting the mining industry, the updated DFS remains in line with the company’s capital expenditure estimate of US$99.1 million (A$146.7 million).
The DFS was accompanied by the announcement of a maiden JORC ore reserve of 24.9 million tonnes (Mt) of graphite with a total graphitic carbon (TGC) grade of 6.2 per cent.
Yulong, who owns a 34 per cent stake in the company, has agreed to the change in development based on the increasing demand for graphite from both battery and industrial applications.
As a cornerstone investor, Yulong will provide TON with expertise regarding several disciplines, including engineering, mining technology and construction, marketing, as well as finance.
As such, Triton enters into 2023 with $2.5 million in the bank at the end of the March quarter and another $5 million at hand to launch its large-scale graphite productions in Mozambique.
The company has begun its front end engineering design (FEED) process, which is the final step needed before heading into construction.
The total indicated and inferred mineral resource at the Ancuabe T12 and T16 deposits amounts to 46.1Mt at an average grade of 6.6 per cent total graphite carbon for 3.04Mt of contained graphite.
The project site is situated 80 kilometres away from an operating container port in Pemba which has granted Triton access to use its sealed road to transport heavy machinery.
TON has been actively developing a funding package for the construction of the Ancuabe Project and has entered into discussions with both Western and Chinese debt providers.
Yulong has been appointed as the company’s preferred Chinese debt arranger, while Yantai Oriental Metallurgical Engineering Company (YOME) has been awarded the contract for FEED works.
YOME is an associate company of the Yantai Jinpeng Mining Machinery Company, which
is a major mining and processing equipment manufacturer that provides engineering, procurement, and construction management services.
“We know Jinpeng to be a highly capable engineering and manufacturing company which has direct experience in building projects in various jurisdictions throughout the world, but importantly in the graphite sector and specifically in Mozambique,” Mr Frazer said.
What’s next?
Triton has completed in-country visits with company representatives, major shareholder Yulong, and Chinese mining contractor Jinpeng, focusing on project execution planning and in-country establishment works.
YOME will undertake the FEED work in the second quarter of 2023 to enhance the design of the processing plant, which in turn will reduce the risk of target reduction in the processing plant and non-process infrastructure capital expenditure.
TON currently awaits approval for an environmental license in June, which is the final sign-off required for graphite production, which will launch the company into the lucrative graphite market.
