Kibaran Resources Ltd. will construct a pilot plant in Germany for producing battery-grade graphite after a successful feasibility study on downstream processing of the commodity from its Epanko project in Tanzania.
The feasibility study was based on production of 20,000 tonnes per year of spherical graphite, a 4x increase over the original plan due to strong customer feedback for the company's environmentally friendly proprietary purification technology.
The study estimated a pretax net present value, discounted at 10%, of US$145 million and a 34.3% internal rate of return, based on a battery graphite price of US$3,250 per tonne in 2018.
The initial investment requirement is expected at US$66 million, with annual EBITDA of US$30.5 million expected from the project, according to the Dec. 5 release.
The pilot plant, with initial capacity of 600 tonnes per annum in 2018, will be expanded to commercial scale production for the supply of premium battery graphite to customers in Europe and Asia.
A full commercial-scale operation will be constructed in 2019, starting with the production and sale of up to 5,000 tonnes per annum and ramping up over several years to 20,000 tonnes per annum.
