JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Tanzania-focused graphite company Black Rock Mining has stepped up its offtake marketing activities, engaging potential offtake partners and presenting the company’s value proposition as a secure and reliable alternative source of high purity graphite for various applications.

Marketing manager Robert Sills reported on Friday that the company had held initial discussions with potential offtake groups in Europe and East Asia. “The level of interest in the Black Rock Mining graphite products across several regions is encouraging – particularly new enquiries following our recent metallurgical results – and we are looking forward to advancing these discussions over the coming months,” he said.

MD Steve Tambanis recently represented Black Rock Mining in the first two cities of the Benchmark Minerals World Tour for the lithium-ion battery supply chain. Both locations – London, in the UK, and Dresden, in Germany – saw attendance by participants ranging from senior representatives of international financial institutions to prominent European original-equipment manufacturers engaged in the development of energy storage technology, to advance the roll-out electric vehicles and the emerging  stationary storage industry.

A secure supply of high-purity graphite and the value-added spherical graphite product is essential for the successful development of these energy storage applications.

In late June, the Black Rock Mining marketing team visited major graphite customers in Japan and Korea – major global manufacturers of lithium-ion battery cells, where the team was given the opportunity to present its 131-million-ton Mahenge project.

“Following our meetings, our mandate to supply graphite is very clear. We will continue to follow our strategy to supply the value-added spherical and expandable graphite markets, while pursuing in parallel other markets to facilitate project development,” Tambanis added.