BlackEarth signs first offtake for Indian project

Under the terms of the agreement, BlackEarth would sell up to 2 500 t/y of expandable graphite valued at around $7.5-million a year, from a proposed new expandable graphite plant in India.

BlackEarth earlier this month signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with India’s Metachem Manufacturing Company to start plant construction and the production of expandable graphite.

Under the MoU, the two companies will invest in a new processing facility to meet demand from Europe-based groups, with the aim of starting production within nine to ten months.

The $3.5-million plant is expected to produce an initial 2 000 t/y of expandable graphite, increasing to 4 000 t/y, with plans to also develop other plants in Europe and other strategic locations.

BlackEarth MD Tom Revy said that the first offtake agreement with Grafitbergbau was an enormous boost to the planned joint venture with Metachem and the development of the plant.

“By making this commitment to buy our product, Grafitbergau has shown enormous confidence in BlackEarth/Metachem and not only is this an endorsement of the expandable graphite produced by Metachem and what is proposed, the agreement also ensures we now have commitments in advance of our future production in India.”

He said that the agreement also underpinned BlackEarth’s proposed plant development in Madagascar, as concentrate from this development would be provided to downstream operations with Metachem as soon as it was available.