Tirupati Graphite PLC (LSE:TGR, OTCQX:TGRHF) said it achieved a milestone with its new "transformational" technology for processing flake graphite.
The unique Column Flotation System (CFS) will "significantly improve performance" of the company's primary graphite and downstream specialty graphite production processes, Tirupati said in a statement.
Following successful trials, the first commercial scale CFS with a 1.5 MT per hour capacity will be shipped for installation and operation at Tirupati's 9,000 tonnes per year (tpa) Vatomina graphite production plant in Madagascar.
The CFS has many advantages over conventional graphite processing technology, Tirupati said, such as a 40% reduction in power consumption, the elimination of corrosion as well as a reduction in the number of processing stages, which will cut overall production costs.
READ: Tirupati Graphite declares start of commercial production at Madagascar's Vatomina project
The new technology will be incorporated in the company's upcoming capacity expansion projects, replacing three out of four flotation stages. This is expected to deliver significant commercial and operational improvements, further strengthening the company's status as a lowest cost quartile producer of natural flake graphite, Tirupati said.
It forecast significant benefits on cost and efficiency in the upcoming 18,000 tpa Sahamamy expansion due to complete at the end of the second quarter this year and in the follow-on 54,000 tpa of additional capacity planned to be built in Madagascar by 2024.
Shishir Poddar, executive chairman of Tirupati Graphite, said: "Our dedicated research centre in India which is the technological backbone supporting the group's operations, has enabled us to commercialise our Column Flotation System with many unique features allowing us to further reduce our costs and increase efficiencies at our primary flake graphite operations in Madagascar, downstream specialty graphite operations in India and, in due course, our primary flake graphite projects in Mozambique as well."