President John Roozendaal said retaining ECG Auguste and the appointment of Tom Cushman were key steps in the company's ultimate goal of reactivating the Ambato-Arana graphite mines "on as short a timeline as is possible".

The company, which refers to itself as Lion, wants to become a principal supplier to the rapidly growing energy storage industry.

"The work currently being undertaken by Lion in Madagascar shows the great progress the company is making to get its graphite mines back into production while remaining in full adherence to Madagascar's regulatory framework while laying the foundation for Lion to move towards a significant level of graphite output," director Sam Malin added.

The company acquired the past-producing Ambato-Arana graphite project in April last year from Avana Resources for US$240,000 plus 4 million shares and two future milestone payments.

It said the project comprised three licences that had been in free-digging and openpit production for about a century from 1910, ending in recent years when the owner/operators retired.

A minerology and assay analysis study last year had returned what management felt were "very positive results" including 7.7% of the sample being super jumbo flake size and the sample containing 96% carbon.

Lion signed a memorandum of understanding in February with private Swiss company EMX to enter an offtake agreement, expected to cover 10,000 tonnes within the first three years of a definitive agreement and a further 10,000t within five years.

It also has the Chedic graphite project in Nevada near Tesla's Gigafactory, the Neuron graphite project in Manitoba and has a stake in BEGO Technologies, which is working with Colorado State University to process graphite into graphene oxide.

The company announced a placement at C10c per unit in February designed to raise up to $600,000 (US$448,000), for general working capital.

Lion's shares have ranged from 6c-43.5c over the past year and closed up about 7% yesterday to 23c, capitalising it at $9.4 million.