BlackEarth has executed a Joint Venture (“JV”) Agreement with India based Company, Metachem Manufacturing Company Pvt. Ltd. (“Metachem”)
Metachem is a leading producer of Expandable Graphite and other downstream products with 20 years production experience and sales in to Europe, Asia and the USA
The expandable graphite market is expected to grow in demand as fire retardant material and for further downstream use in the automotive, EV and alternative energy sectors
The BlackEarth and Metachem JV plans to supply a material portion of all imports of Expandable Graphite into Europe – expansion plans being initiated to capture a greater share of world wide demand
Estimated JV Revenue of A$9m in the year one, ramping up to ~A$17 m
Plant development plans have commenced with implementation expected within 3 months, with production and sales projected in Mid 2022
Recent signing of an Offtake Agreement with Grafitbergbau provides security that all production in the short term has been presold – at our option
Development will position BlackEarth as the First Producer of commercial levels of Expandable Graphite listed on ASX
Plan for JV complements the existing India and Australia strong and productive bilateral partnership.
BlackEarth Managing Director, Tom Revy, commented:
“The signing of this JV is an exciting development in the growth of our Company.
To form this JV with a world leader of Expandable Graphite production is a wonderful outcome and this event follows many months of discussions between the executive teams our two Companies.
Now that we have signed off on this JV, we will shortly move to our preferred site in India and also conclude the recruitment of senior executives in India to manage the planning, construction and development phase.
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.
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”.
On the signing of the JV Agreement, Mr Jayant Pawar – President of Metachem, commented: “We are delighted to have signed this Agreement with the team at BlackEarth.
Our business has operated successfully for a number of decades and we believe the marketing and industry experience of the BlackEarth team will enable our JV to significantly grow our market share in a number of key markets.
Additionally, partnering with BlackEarth also guarantees the JV a reliable, world class supply of graphite concentrate in the short term and on an ongoing, long term basis.
The Indian manufacturing world is rapidly growing with interest from businesses globally. We are excited about the prospect for our JV as we grow this business to become a world leader of the supply of downstream graphite products over the decades to come.”
