The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Metal Tech News - October 18, 2024
Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) has invited Graphite One Inc. to apply for a $325 million loan for the development of a graphite battery materials processing plant in Ohio.
The site selected for Graphite One's processing plant is an area of Ohio with excellent transportation and energy infrastructure.
Graphite One is using a $37.5 million DOD grant to expand and upgrade resources and other work needed to finalize a feasibility study for a mine at the world-class graphite deposit in Alaska.
To help support the establishment of a domestic mine-to-EVs graphite supply chain, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) has invited Graphite One Inc. to apply for a $325 million loan to build its planned advanced anode material (AAM) processing plant in Ohio.
"Based on the preliminary information submitted regarding expected U.S. exports and U.S. jobs supported by this project, EXIM may be able to consider potential financing of up to $325 million of the project's costs with a repayment tenor of 15 years under EXIM's Make More in America initiative," the export credit agency for the U.S. government penned in a letter of interest to Graphite One.
The proposed loan would help Graphite One establish a completely domestic supply of graphite that will help break America's heavy dependence on China for this critical lithium-ion battery material.
"Today's announcement confirms Graphite One's focus on developing a 100% U.S.-based advanced graphite materials supply chain," said Graphite One President and CEO Anthony Huston.
This all-American supply chain would extend from a mine at the company's world-class Graphite Creek project in western Alaska, through the AAM facility to be funded by the EXIM loan, and onward to American car buyers via Lucid Motors' EV manufacturing plant in Arizona.
"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," Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson said upon the signing of an AAM purchase agreement with Graphite One in July.
A $325 million loan from EXIM would provide Graphite One with the funding needed to build the advanced graphite materials processing and recycling plant that will deliver anode material to Lucid and others.
The mine-to-EVs supply chain Graphite One is endeavoring to establish is becoming increasingly critical to America's economic growth, security, and clean energy ambitions.
While the automotive industry is driving massive new demand for graphite, the batteries this material enables are used in virtually every segment of the U.S. economy and a wide range of military devices.
Due to the increasing use of lithium-ion batteries, analysts forecast that global graphite demand will reach 5 to 6 million metric tons per year by 2030. This is more than three times the 1.6 million metric tons mined globally during 2023.
Graphite, however, has not been mined from American soil in more than 30 years. As a result, manufacturers in the U.S. are heavily reliant on China, which produced 77% of all mined graphite and more than 90% of the world's graphite anode materials in 2023.
Adding to the typical economic and geopolitical implications this reliance poses, China now requires government authorization for exports of graphite out of the country. This provides the communist government with a spigot that can be used to shut off the primary global supply of graphite needed for the energy transition.
Graphite One is using a $37.5 million DOD grant to expand and upgrade resources and other work needed to finalize a feasibility study for a mine at the world-class graphite deposit in Alaska.
Given China's dominance over global graphite supply chains, EXIM has indicated that a loan to Graphite One may be eligible for special considerations under the export bank's "China and Transformational Exports Program," which offers reduced fees and extended repayment periods for projects that must compete with companies backed by Chinese government subsidies.
EXIM's preliminary loan offer is part of a larger all-of-government strategy to help Graphite One build its envisioned all-American graphite supply chain that includes two U.S. Department of Defense grants totaling $42.2 million.
"EXIM's potential financing, following on G1's two Department of Defense grants under the Defense Production Act and from the Defense Logistics Agency, underscores the urgent need to bring U.S. graphite supply into production, and end the nation's 100% foreign dependency," said Huston.
The DOD funding includes a $37.5 million grant to accelerate the completion of a feasibility study that will provide the economic and engineering details for establishing a graphite mine in Alaska and processing plant in Ohio.
To collect the information needed for the feasibility study, Graphite One has carried out extensive work to support a mine plan for Graphite Creek, home to the largest known deposit of graphite in the U.S. and amongst the largest in the world.
Much of this work has focused on drilling to upgrade and expand upon the 14.2 million metric tons of graphite that has been outlined so far.
According to a calculation completed early in 2023, Graphite Creek hosts 37.6 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 5.14% (1.9 million metric tons) graphite; plus 243.7 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 5.07% (12.3 million metric tons) graphite.
While this resource only represents a small portion of a roughly 10-mile-long trend of graphite mineralization, the drilling has focused primarily on upgrading inferred resources to the higher-confidence indicated category in support of a feasibility study that will detail plans for a mine capable of producing 183,000 metric tons of graphite concentrate per year, which is more than three times larger than the operation outlined in a 2022 prefeasibility study.
The field program at Graphite Creek has also included work to support engineering studies and permitting.
At the same time, the company is moving forward with plans to develop the graphite processing and battery materials recycling facility at a former national defense critical minerals stockpile site near Warren, Ohio.
A large and previously industrialized property with ready access to road, rail, barging facilities, and plentiful electricity, the old national defense stockpile site checks off all the boxes for Graphite One.
The site selected for Graphite One's processing plant is an area of Ohio with excellent transportation and energy infrastructure.
"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," said Huston.
While the Alaska mine and Ohio facility are being advanced in parallel, the AAM facility will likely be ready for production first.
While waiting for natural graphite from its planned mine in Alaska, which will take longer to permit and build, the Ohio plant will produce synthetic graphite anode material for lithium batteries. This will allow Graphite One to begin offering a domestic supply of this critical battery material while the mine is being developed, and the synthetic graphite can be used to augment and enhance the natural graphite delivered from Alaska.
Graphite One is on pace to complete the feasibility study early in 2025 and expects to begin producing AAM at the Ohio processing plant by 2029.
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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