Total Graphite PLC (LSE:TGR, OTCQX:TGRHF), the flake graphite developer with projects in Mozambique, has appointed Lycopodium (ASX:LYL) Minerals Africa to review and update the feasibility work on its Montepuez project.
The mine is permitted for production of up to one hundred thousand tonnes per annum and will use the modular development route set out in an October 2017 value engineering study as its base case.
That approach splits development into two roughly fifty thousand tonne stages, with the first requiring $42.3 million of pre-production capital, operating costs of $337 per tonne and payback in under two years.
A second stage would add close to the same capacity again for a further $27 million, taking total capital spending to around $69 million and cutting operating costs below $310 per tonne.
Those figures date from 2017 and have not been restated for cost inflation, though the board says the project's capital efficiency remains competitive against other development-stage graphite projects.
Around 60% of detailed design engineering was completed historically, and early site works, including a one-hundred-person base camp and mobile crusher are already in place.
Montepuez holds mineral resources of 110.5 million tonnes at 8.2% total graphitic carbon, equivalent to 9.1 million tonnes of contained graphite.
Initial results from the Lycopodium review are targeted for November 2026, ahead of a second phase updating the study and a push to secure project finance to restart construction in 2027.
Chairman Christian Dennis said the appointment marked an important step in advancing Montepuez towards construction, adding that the project could provide feedstock for Total Graphite's US anode project.
Total Graphite also holds the nearby Balama Central deposit, and plans to update that project's pre-feasibility study later in the year, subject to the Montepuez results.
