Tirupati Graphite plc (LON:TGR), the specialist flake graphite company and supplier of the critical mineral for the global energy transition, has announced the completion of its exploration and resource drilling programme at its two Madagascan flake graphite projects. An updated Competent Persons Report is now being prepared by SRK Consulting and is expected to be published in the near term.
Exploration Programme Overview
· Completed c.5,000 metres of diamond core drilling, 26,000 metres of auger drilling and 360 running metres of six to eight metres depth trenching across the two projects as detailed in the table below:
| Exploration activities executed after 2020 CPR | |||||
| Activity | Location | Number | Meterage | Assays | |
| Meters | Graphite Intercepts | ||||
| Diamond Core Drilling | Vatomina | 85 | 4018.26 | 889,35 | 1307 |
| Diamond Core Drilling | Sahamamy | 28 | 803.1 | 191.39 | 52 |
| Manual Auger Drill | Vatomina | 1677 | 15093 | 4131 | 788 |
| Manual Auger Drill | Sahamamy | 1543 | 11066 | 626 | 452 |
| Trenching | Vatomina | 42 | 167.76 | 84.59 | 26 |
| Trenching | Sahamamy | 62 | 192 | Data under compilation | |
· Drilling was undertaken using the Company’s fully owned equipment – two diamond core drilling rigs, auger facilities and earthmoving machinery, used for developing access to exploration locations and trench cutting.
SRK Consulting is now working to produce an updated CPR under JORC Code 2012 to update their existing 2020 report. SRK’s leadership team is currently on the ground for their customary project visit and work continues towards completion of the updated CPR with the SRK Consulting team targeting release in due course.
For reference, the JORC Code 2012 resources published under the 2020 CPR across the Company’s Vatomina and Sahamamy Projects are as below:
SRK Mineral Resource Statement Vatomina Graphite Project, Madagascar, in accordance with the JORC Code (2012) as of 31 December 2019
| Resource Category | Quantity | Grade |
| (Mt) | (GC%) | |
| Measured | – | – |
| Indicated | 3.2 | 4.3 |
| Inferred | 15.2 | 4.7 |
| Total Mineral Resource | 18.4 | 4.6 |
SRK Mineral Resource Statement Sahamamy Graphite Project, Madagascar, in accordance with the JORC Code (2012) as of 31 December 2019
| Resource Category | Quantity | Grade |
| (Mt) | (GC%) | |
| Measured | – | – |
| Indicated | 1.4 | 4.1 |
| Inferred | 5.7 | 4.2 |
| Total Mineral Resource | 7.1 | 4.2 |
Shishir Poddar, Tirupati Graphite Executive Chairman, said:
“We are extremely pleased with the extensive exploration activities conducted by our team alongside development and operations. We expect the updated CPR to show a material increase in our resource numbers underlining the long-term potential of our currently operating and expanded projects in Madagascar. We look forward to releasing the updated CPR as soon as it is available, another activity which aligns with our goal to become the leading ex-China source of natural flake graphite contributing to the energy transition economy.”
“It is significant to note that the completion of current exploration phase reduces our cash use towards exploration and the team and our resources will be further focussed on achieving our goal of achieving EBDITA positive results at the corporate level in the immediate term.
