JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed graphite producer StratMin has received the remaining portion of the first tranche funding of £500 000 from ASX-listed Bass Metals, after receiving an initial £75-million from the Australia-based company in October, StratMin confirmed on Monday.

This transfer forms part of Bass Metals’ £2-million earn-in agreement to acquire a 25% stake in StratMin’s Graphmada Mauritius subsidiary.

CEO Brett Boynton commented that the completion of the transfer got StratMin off to a good start for the new year.

“We had an extremely busy final quarter in 2015, with increased production and parallel plant refurbishments, but the team [is] already back on site after a short break over the festive season,” he said.

With the transfer of the first tranche now complete, Bass owned 6.5% of Graphmada Mauritius, while StratMin held the balance.

The companies were working together to complete the second tranche of funding totalling £1.5-million by March 31.
 
The first tranche was applied to a number of plant and machinery improvements at StratMin’s Loharano mine, in Madagascar, which was working towards expanding production capacity to 6 000 t/y of processed flake graphite.

The final transfer had also enabled StratMin to order a complete new power supply solution for the plant as well as a new Cummins diesel generator, which was being prepared for delivery to site.

The company noted that this was a key component in its ongoing plant refurbishment programme, stating that the new generator capacity would enable reliable power supply to match the increased demand from production expansion over the last quarter.

Boynton highlighted that StratMin was working well with Bass and was encouraged by the Australian market’s response.

“The next quarter will again be a busy one with a lot of activity on site and at  corporate level as we continue to work though our upgrade programme and focus on increasing sales,” he concluded.