Shipping bottlenecks hits Balama

The Balama graphite operation produced 13 000 t of natural graphite for the three months to December, down from the 25 000 t produced in the previous quarter, with Syrah telling shareholders that production had been constrained by maximum finished product inventory positions at Balama and Nacala, as well as the ongoing disruptions in the global container shipping market.

Graphite sales for the quarter reached 19 000 t, up from the 18 000 t sold in the September quarter, with Syrah noting that all 20 000 t of finished product inventory had been contracted to customers.

Unprecedented container shipping market disruption impacted the company’s ability to secure container capacity for Balama products on vessels sailing from Nacala, meaning the company was unable to match product sales to increasingly strong underlying customer demand.

Additional shipping options are expected to become available from the March quarter, which would likely result in production rates beyond 15 000 t/m, and unit costs at Balama reducing, Syrah said.

The company is also progressing a competitive tender process for contract mining services at Balama in order to lower mining costs, while a solar and battery project at the mine is also progressing.

Meanwhile, the company noted that while a number of employees and contractors had tested positive for Covid-19 during the quarter, operational activities at the mine had not been impacted by these cases.