Contained graphite at Montepuez increased by 20% to 9.66 million tonnes.

Following a July resource upgrade for the Elephant deposit, Battery announced an increased resource for the Buffalo deposit of 42.9Mt at 9.5% total graphitic carbon, using a 2.5% TGC cut-off.

Tonnage rose by 3.9Mt, while grade was up 1.9%. Measured and indicated resources increased from 18.5Mt at 8.6% TGC to 76.9Mt at 7.3% TGC.

Battery's group graphite inventory now stands at 152.5Mt at 8.5% TGC for 13Mt of contained graphite, including the Montepuez and Balama Central projects.

"The team have achieved a step change in the quantity and quality of our resource base," Battery managing director David Flanagan said.

"The increase in confidence in the overall mineral resources will be fed into the various mining studies and we look forward to the results."

The Montepuez implementation mine plan and the Balama Central feasibility study mine plan, which are being prepared by Snowden for release in early November.

Montepuez is already under construction and Origin Capital has been appointed as financial adviser to fund the remainder of the project capital.

Pre-production capital costs are US$51.2 million for an operation producing 45,000-50,000t per annum of graphite over more than 10 years.

The company will be in production within 12 months of obtaining finance.

Battery shares were sitting unchanged at A2.6c today, near the 12-month low of 2.4c. The stock peaked at 11c in February.