The Talga Group Ltd (ASX: TLG) share price spent this afternoon in the red before closing 3.69% lower at $1.57.
The company released its quarterly report after the market closed on Friday, so today was the first opportunity for investors to trade on the news. As such, the Talga share price underperformed compared to the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO), which closed just 0.05% lower today.
Talga is a minerals tech company with operations including graphite exploration and development in Sweden and graphite or graphene research and development in Germany and the United Kingdom.
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What happened during the quarter?
During the quarter ending 31 March 2021 (3Q FY21), the company started constructing its fully-funded Swedish Electric Vehicle Anode qualification plant. So far, the project remains on schedule with the equipment for the plant expected to be delivered by quarter 4 this financial year.
Furthermore, graphite ore from the company's Vittangi project arrived at its Scandinavian mineral processing partner for milling and concentration. Talga expects the outcomes to be known around the first quarter of FY22.
The applications permitting the company to advance and continue mining at its Vittangi project also arrived this quarter. This, in turn, enabled the company to prepare for its 25,000-tonne trial graphite mine at Vittangi.
Talga noted that its Vittangi anode production path has been pushed back during the quarter due to complications caused by COVID-19 and site access restrictions. As such, it expects the feasibility study for the plant to be completed in late June 2021.
In addition, the company continued to make progress with its graphene and battery anode technology. This included numerous customer sample qualification programs regarding lithium-ion batteries and an update on its Talcoat graphene additive for marine coatings.
About the Talga share price
With Talga successfully raising $30 million from its shareholder placement plan this quarter, it currently holds $58.4 million in cash. This includes the recent sale of its Western Australian gold royalties for $800,000.
Furthermore, the company divested its "non-core" Swedish Iron projects. This process is expected to be completed by late September, with any transaction announced around the same time.
Despite strong performance during April, the Talga share price did not have a positive start to the year. Shares in the small-cap graphene company are down 16% year-to-date.
