The Australian mining company Mustang Resources on Sunday announced it has raised 1.75 million US dollars through a private placement to advance the company’s graphite and vanadium project in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado.

The company statement revealed that of the 2.4 million Australian dollars raised over ten per cent came from Mustang’s management and directors from Regius Resources (which is majority owned by Mustang Chief Operating Officer Cobus van Wyk and Director Christiaan Jordaan). The other investors are based in Australia, Hong Kong and the United States.

According to Mustang’s managing director Bernard Olivier, “this capital raise is important in the fast-tracked development of the Caula Vanadium-Graphite project in Mozambique”.

He went on to note that the JORC Measured Resource (JORC is the Australian code for reporting mineral resources) finds that 22 million tonnes of mineable material contains 0.37 per cent vanadium pentoxide (81,400 tonnes) and 13.4 per cent graphite (2.93 million tonnes).

Olivier added, “with the feasibility study drilling now well underway it is likely that the resource will be enlarged in the near future”.

The company states that tests have confirmed “exceptional quality graphite with more than 63 per cent of cumulative proportion in large to super jumbo flakes sizes”. In addition, the vanadium is “hosted in roscoelite (a mica mineral), potentially simpler and cheaper to extract vanadium from than typical titano-magnetite vanadium deposits”.

Mustang stresses that “Mozambique is an attractive investment destination” with “a relatively low sovereign risk profile … with an established legal and business framework which has attracted significant investment into minerals projects in recent years”.

Graphite is a form of carbon that is highly valued due to its properties as a conductor of electricity. It is used in batteries and fuel cells and is the basis for the “miracle material” graphene, which is the strongest material ever measured, with vast potential for use in the electronics industries. Graphite is also used for high-quality steel production.

Vanadium is mainly used as an additive to strengthen steel. However, it is now being used in a new generation of rechargeable batteries.