Ancuabe accelerating towards development

Triton Minerals plans to develop its Ancuabe graphite project in Mozambique to feed the established and high-growth expandable graphite market. In our view, this is a prudent way forward in a sector dominated by graphite companies tussling with the vagaries of battery-ready graphite production and an end-market yet to mature. With East African graphite deposits already advancing in many cases (AMG’s Ancuabe mine is now commissioned, Syrah’s Balama is under construction, Volt Resources is securing off-takes), it is clear the region’s graphite is suitable for industrial uses. An important constituent is China, where some producers are aiming to outsource raw graphite in order to clean up old, inefficient graphite mines as well as secure expandable graphite for the recently revised (2015) fire-retardant cladding regulations.