Miner signs biggest spherical graphite offtake agreement to date

ASX-listed Syrah Resources has signed a spherical graphite five-year offtake agreement with Japanese trading and investment conglomerate Marubeni Corporation, representing the largest spherical graphite offtake agreement signed to date, notes Syrah MD Tolga Kumova. Syrah’s flagship Balama project is situated in the Cabo Delgado province of northern Mozambique. According to the definitive feasibility study completed in May 2015, Balama will be a simple openpit operation that will produce about 350 000 t/y of graphite over a mine life of 42 years. It has the largest graphite resource in the world with 1.05-billion tonnes, grading at 10% graphitic carbon. Production is expected to start in the first quarter of 2017.