Bass Metals Inks Deal to Supply Graphite to India

Australian producer Bass Metals (ASX:BSM) has signed a deal to supply its graphite to India.

The exclusive agency agreement with Polo Queen Minchems will give the industrial minerals group an opportunity to sell and market concentrates from Bass Metals’ Graphmada project in Madagascar.

According to the miner, trade between India and Madagascar is significant and there are well-defined and efficient shipping channels between the two countries. Most imports of natural graphite to India, which reached a total of 37,044 tonnes in 2017, come from China, Madagascar and Brazil. 

But production in China has faced challenges in the past years due to changes in environmental laws and regulations, with less graphite being exported. That’s why countries like India have been looking to Madagascar to increase and expand supply channels.

“For some time now we have been exporting into India, but with shifts in global supply and demand, we do believe this rapidly growing economy provides us with yet another market to sell our world class graphite concentrates to,” Bass Metals CEO Tim McManus said.

In the past 12 months, Bass Metals has sold over 600 tonnes to India, and by 2020 it expects supply to reach more than 3,000 tonnes, with a significant portion of the company’s scheduled production increases planned for export to the country. Bass Metals is also supplying graphite concentrates to buyers in the US and Germany.

At this time, Bass Metals said it is “delighted” with the overall pricing achieved in India, with many products selling above budgeted levels.

“To date, pricing has been very solid and we are excited about the prospects of an extremely strong and increasing supply in 2020 and beyond as our high quality product becomes increasingly accepted and broadly used in India,” McManus added.

The Graphmada large-flake graphite mine has a mineral resource estimate of 9.2 million tonnes at 4.2 percent total graphitic carbon, with production during Stage 1 set at 6,000 tonnes per year over a 17 year mine life. The company is looking to increase output to 20,000 tonnes per year in Stage 2.

On Tuesday (July 9), shares of Bass Metals were up 12.5 percent, closing at AU$0.009 in Sydney.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Priscila Barrera, currently hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.