Chinese company Shandong Tianye Mining has invested a further $1.23-million into Australian junior Triton Minerals, buying shares (in a placement by Triton) at a price of $0.048 per share, Proactive Investors has reported.

Shandong Tianye Mining was already the largest shareholder in the Australian company, which is developing graphite projects in Mozambique. (Shandong Tianye Mining is itself part of the larger, private-sector, Shandong Tianye Group, established in 1999 and originally a real estate business, with real estate remaining a core focus; the mining operation was set up in 2007. The group is also active in the energy and microfinance, as well as other, sectors.)

The Chinese company undertook a detailed due diligence review before making its latest investment, which expressed its support for Triton’s aim of developing its graphite projects. Further, Shandong Tianye Mining entered into an agreement with the Australian enterprise to assist it with technical services and marketing in China. Demand for expandable graphite in the Asian giant has been stimulated by regulations that specify that new buildings in China must be built with flame-retarding materials.

Triton will use the money to fund the completion of the definitive feasibility study for the Ancuabe project. This study is on track to be concluded by December. Ancuabe is one of three graphite projects Triton is developing in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province. The other two are Balama North and Balama South. Triton holds 80% of unlisted Mozambique company Grafex Limitada, which holds the licences for these projects.

Currently, Ancuabe is being prioritised by the miner because of the high quality of the graphite found there and its location near essential infrastructure. Ancuabe lies in eastern Cabo Delgado, only some 60 km from the port city of Pemba, whereas the two Balama projects lie close to the province’s western border (with Niassa province). Indeed, in its corporate presentation in March, the company stated that its strategy was the “[r]apid development of the Ancuabe Project to produce low-cost, high-margin, premium flake-size graphite concentrate while developing a pipeline of projects for supply into the global graphite market”.

(Triton’s Ancuabe project must not be confused with GK Ancuabe Graphite Mine Sociedade Anônima’s Ancuabe graphite mine, which is a completely separate business and operation and which restarted operation in May. Triton/Grafex’s licence areas actually surround GK Ancuabe Graphite’s licence area.)

Triton’s indicated and inferred resources for its Ancuabe project total 27.9-million tons of ore at a grade of 6% total graphitic carbon, giving 1.68-million tons of contained graphite. A recent scoping study by the Australian junior forecast a net present value of $128-million to $246-million and a payback period (based on a sensitivity analysis) of 2.7 to 4.8 years. Prospecting has indicated that the Ancuabe deposit has a high proportion of large-flake, jumbo-flake and super-jumbo-flake graphite.