Tirupati Graphite is laying the groundwork for a sharp production ramp-up at its Vatomina project in Madagascar, and fresh drill results are pointing in all the right directions. While March brought temporary headwinds, the company’s operational reset is paving the way for a significant uplift in output—and a strategic turning point for investor value.
In March, Tirupati produced approximately 388 tonnes of flake graphite concentrate at Vatomina, a figure slightly below internal targets due to plant downtime and a dip in ore grades. However, the company has taken swift steps to course-correct. Grade control and mine planning drilling resumed late in the month, following the return of Tirupati’s own drilling rig, a critical move to support the mining of higher-grade zones.
Initial outcomes from this drilling campaign have already confirmed stronger ore grades, aligning with Tirupati’s confidence in its production potential. These results suggest the Vatomina plant is now positioned to reach daily outputs of around 25 tonnes of flake graphite concentrate using its two existing pre-concentration units (PCUs). To further bolster this, two additional PCUs are currently being relocated from the Sahamamay operation to Vatomina and are scheduled for installation within the month.
Despite March’s shortfall, Tirupati is holding firm to its production targets—1,000 tonnes per month by July and 1,500 tonnes per month by December. This consistency in guidance underlines management’s conviction in the project’s scalability and performance rebound.
Customer appetite remains robust across all graphite grades, underscoring the project’s commercial traction. A legacy backlog of prepaid orders—220 tonnes dating from before the company’s leadership transition—will be cleared by mid-April. Once these orders are fulfilled, Tirupati will begin recognising revenue from all new sales directly into its current cashflows, marking a vital inflection point for its financials.
On the corporate front, Tirupati is also making strides in restoring its internal systems. An audit of the company’s financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2024, is now back underway after a necessary overhaul of accounting systems that followed restricted access issues under the previous CEO.
Simultaneously, investor confidence appears to be returning. Subscriptions for Tirupati’s placing of zero-coupon convertible notes have already exceeded £2.5 million, with the offering still open until April 11. Of this, £1.56 million has been received to date, with the remaining funds expected by April 15—positioning the company with a stronger capital base heading into a key operational phase.
Tirupati Graphite PLC (LON:TGR) is a fully integrated specialist graphite and graphene producer, with operations in Madagascar and Mozambique. The Company is delivering on this strategy by being fully integrated from mine to graphene. Its global multi-location operations include primary mining and processing in Madagascar, hi-tech graphite processing in India to produce specialty graphite, and a state-of-art graphene and technology R&D center to be established in India.
