The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Metal Tech News - July 25, 2025
Lucid Motors has cut a deal with Graphite One for domestic anode material for the batteries powering its award-winning EVs.
The exploration camp at Graphite One's world-class Graphite Creek project in western Alaska.
The Ohio locale of Graphite One's graphite processing and recycling plant provides ready access to highways, rails, and ports.
Toward its goal of creating sustainable mobility with cars that make the best possible use of the world's resources, California-based Lucid Motors has entered into an agreement to buy domestically produced graphite for the batteries powering its electric vehicles from a processing and recycling plant to be built by Graphite One Inc. in Ohio.
"We are committed to accelerating the transition to sustainable vehicles and the development of a robust domestic supply chain ensures the United States, and Lucid, will maintain technology leadership in this global race," said Lucid CEO and Chief Technical Officer Peter Rawlinson. "Through work with partners like Graphite One, we will have access to American-sourced critical raw materials, helping power our award-winning vehicles made with pride in Arizona."
For Graphite One, this deal marks the first agreement to supply an American automaker with lithium battery anode material to be produced at its future Ohio processing plant, as well as the first deal any automaker has made for the supply of synthetic graphite produced in the United States.
"This is a historic moment for Graphite One, Lucid and North America: the first synthetic graphite Supply Agreement between a U.S. graphite developer and U.S. EV company," said Graphite One President and CEO Anthony Huston. "G1 is excited to continue pushing forward developing our 100% U.S. domestic supply chain."
When complete, Graphite One's all-American graphite supply chain will include a mine in Alaska and the processing and recycling facility to be developed at a former national defense critical minerals stockpile site near Warren, Ohio.
Lying about midway between Cleveland and Pittsburg, the industrial site in Ohio is well connected to road, rail, and barging infrastructure – an ideal location for bringing in graphite concentrates and shipping advanced anode material (AAM) to future customers like Lucid.
The Ohio locale of Graphite One's graphite processing and recycling plant provides ready access to highways, rails, and ports.
"Ohio is the perfect home for the second link in our strategy to build a 100% U.S.-based advanced graphite supply chain – from mining to refining to recycling. The U.S. simply cannot maintain a 21st century tech-driven economy without critical minerals like graphite," said Huston.
The first link of this supply chain will be Graphite Creek, a project in western Alaska that hosts "the largest known flake graphite resource in the USA and ... among the largest in the world," according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Graphite One is currently collecting the final information needed to complete a feasibility study that will detail the design and economic parameters for a mine at Graphite Creek and ready the project for entering the permitting process.
This work is being funded under a grant of up to $37.5 million awarded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Graphite One's proposed domestic graphite supply chain with links in Alaska and Ohio has also captured the attention of the Biden-Harris administration, which invited Huston to the White House in May to attend an event introducing heavy tariffs being levied on goods imported from China, including graphite and EVs.
"I was honored to represent everyone at Graphite One in the meeting with President Biden," said Huston. "We appreciate his support for the renewable energy transition and G1 is excited to continue pushing forward to create a secure 100% U.S.-based supply chain for natural and synthetic graphite."
Subject to financing and permitting requirements, Graphite One plans to begin producing 25,000 metric tons of synthetic graphite anode material at its Ohio plant by 2027, and the site is large enough to ramp the plant up to 100,000 metric tons per year.
The company currently anticipates the start of production at Graphite Creek around 2028. The concentrates from this mine would be shipped to Ohio for the production of natural graphite anode material, which would complete the all-American graphite supply chain.
The exploration camp at Graphite One's world-class Graphite Creek project in western Alaska.
For Lucid, Graphite One's Ohio plant will offer a domestic supply of graphite, the single largest ingredient in the lithium batteries powering EVs.
Because there is no graphite currently being mined in the U.S., American automakers such as Lucid must rely on imports for their graphite needs. This often means sourcing this critical battery ingredient from China, which supplied 77% of the mined graphite and nearly 90% of graphite anode materials produced globally in 2023.
For automakers, using graphite coming out of China impacts whether the EVs they manufacture qualify for up to $7,500 tax credits offered to American buyers under the Inflation Reduction Act, as long as the materials made to build the automobile are not supplied by a company with direct ties to the governments in China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran.
For Lucid, domestically sourcing the graphite and other materials needed to build its American-made EVs goes beyond tax credits and tariffs.
"At Lucid, we place an exceptionally high priority on efficiency – our cars must make the best possible use of the world's resources. So, every Lucid delivers exceptional range without sacrificing high performance or sublime comfort," according to the Silicon Valley-based company's website.
This commitment to excellence led to the Lucid Air, a four-door sedan with a range of up to 512 miles and a charging time of as little as 12 minutes, to be awarded the MotorTrend 2022 Car of the Year, World Luxury Car of the Year, and Car and Driver 10 Best.
The technology-driven EV manufacturer is currently expanding its state-of-the-art, vertically integrated factory in Arizona to begin production of Lucid Gravity, a seven-passenger SUV that will boast up to 440 miles of range and more than 800 horsepower.
Lucid has agreed to buy up to 5,000 metric tons of advanced anode material per year from Graphite One for the first five years after the Ohio plant begins producing synthetic graphite.
"Subject to project financing required to build the AAM facility, the supply agreement with Lucid puts G1 on the path to produce revenue in 2027, and that's just the beginning for Graphite One as work to meet market demands and create a secure 100% U.S.-based supply chain for natural and synthetic graphite for U.S. industry and national security," said Huston.
With more than 16 years of covering mining, Shane is renowned for his insights and and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration and technology metals.
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