BlackEarth Minerals NL has received confirmation from the Port d’Ehoala SA that the company has been granted a Right to export its graphite concentrate from the Port.
BlackEarth’s Maniry Graphite Project is located in Southern Madagascar, approximately 250 kilometres from the Port.
The Port d’Ehoala SA is jointly owned and operated by Rio Tinto and QIT Madagascar Minerals (a company jointly owned by Rio Tinto and the Madagascan government).
The Right to export from Port d’Ehoala SA relates to all graphite related products produced from Maniry and the provisions of the services to be provided by the Port include:
- The Right to initially export up to 30,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate with a provision to increase this volume over time to cater for the BlackEarth’s Stage 2 expansion;
- Port d’Ehoala SA will provide all shiploading services as required by BlackEarth; and
- Port d’Ehoala SA will provide services comparable to and in accordance with Rio Tinto’s safety and other standards that are currently applied to services at this Port.
BlackEarth Managing Director, Tom Revy, said the confirmation is a really important achievement for the BlackEarth team and is a significant milestone in the development of the Maniry Mine operations in the rapidly growing graphite region of Southern Madagascar.
“Having access to world-class infrastructure is critical to any mine operation, in any part of the world, and this Right now allows us to move forward with certainty, and also provides yet another strategic advantage to our planned Maniry large flake graphite plant development,” Mr Revy said.