Adds details, background from paragraph 2 onwards
Dec 12 (Reuters) - A unit of Australia's Syrah Resources SYR.AX has declared a force majeure event at its Balama Graphite Operation amid post-election civil unrest in Mozambique, the miner said on Thursday.
Shares in Syrah, which has a natural graphite supply deal with Tesla TSLA.O, fell as much as 32.1% in early trading to A$0.18, their lowest level since March 2020.
Disputed election results that were announced in October sparked protests from opposition supporters in Mozambique, triggering escalating violence.
Syrah said it was unable to produce graphite at the Balama project in the December quarter due to the protests. It added that the production was crucial for filling out its product inventory and for sales.
"The movement of people and supplies, site access and plant operations have continued to be interrupted," the miner said in a statement.
The protests' impact has also caused the company to default on its loans with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
"Syrah is engaging with DFC and DOE regarding these events of default," the company said.
Earlier this week, diversified miner South32 S32.AX had withdrawn its output forecast for its Mozal Aluminium smelter in Mozambique, citing the protests.
(Reporting by Aaditya Govind Rao in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas)
((Aaditya.GovindRao@thomsonreuters.com;))
免責聲明：投資有風險，本文並非投資建議，以上內容不應被視為任何金融產品的購買或出售要約、建議或邀請，作者或其他用戶的任何相關討論、評論或帖子也不應被視為此類內容。本文僅供一般參考，不考慮您的個人投資目標、財務狀況或需求。TTM對信息的準確性和完整性不承擔任何責任或保證，投資者應自行研究並在投資前尋求專業建議。