- BlackEarth Minerals (BEM) has penned a joint venture agreement with Indian-based company, Metachem Manufacturing, to develop an expandable graphite plant in India
- The revenue from the joint venture (JV) is estimated to sit at $9 million during the first year, with the potential to ramp up to roughly $17 million, with each partner holding a 50 per cent equity
- Plans to develop the plant have begun, with implementation expected within three months and a current target of production and sales by mid-2022
- BlackEarth Minerals is trading 12 per cent up at 14 cents at 10:31 am AEDT
BlackEarth Minerals (BEM) has penned a joint venture agreement to develop an expandable graphite plant in India.
The deal with India-based company, Metachem Manufacturing, will see the parties supply expandable graphite into Europe.
Through the agreement, the companies will begin plant construction and the production of expandable graphite, with planning already underway for site selection, executive recruitment and scheduling of other logistics and development. BlackEarth will then manage sales, marketing and the growth of sales worldwide.
The revenue from the joint venture (JV) is estimated to sit at $9 million during the first year, with the potential to ramp up to roughly $17 million. Each JV partner has proposed a 50/50 equity and profit share arrangement.
The company said the estimated initial production is expected to sit between 2000 and 2500 tonnes per annum (tpa) with plans to materially grow production.
Plans to develop a plant have begun, with implementation expected within three months and a current target of production and sales by mid-2022.
BlackEarth Managing Director Tom Revy said signing the joint venture marked an exciting development of growth for the company.
“Having an offtake partner prepared to buy all initial production has also given us confidence to move forward with plant expansion plans so that we can increase production and sales over the medium term, whilst minimising operational risk,” Mr Revy said.
“With first year sales projected to be almost A$9m for the JV, we expect to start receiving a steady and strong cash flow during 2022 which will also contribute to the planned development of our Maniry site in Madagascar, consistent with our initial fast-track to cash flow strategy.”
BlackEarth Minerals was trading 12 per cent up at 14 cents at 10:31 am AEDT.