London-listed Tirupati Graphite has completed a 5 000 m diamond core programme and a 26 000 m auger drilling programme on its two flake graphite projects in Madagascar.

Consultancy SRK Consulting is in the process of drafting an updated competent persons report (CPR) on the Vatomina and Sahamamy projects.

The last mineral resource statement on the projects published in 2019 outlines a total mineral resource of 18.4-million tonnes grading 4.6% at Vatomina and a 7.1-million-tonne resource grading 4.2% at the Sahamamy project.

Chairperson Shishir Poddar says the drilling was undertaken using the company’s own equipment and teams. He expects the updated CPR to show a material increase in the 2019 resource numbers, which should underline the long-term potential of the projects.

Tirupati aims to become a leading source of natural flake graphite outside of China.