The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Samples sent to national labs, EV manufactures for evaluation North of 60 Mining News – April 28, 2023
Graphite Creek material similar to the sample contained in this drill core has been transformed into active anode material, the single largest ingredient in the lithium batteries powering EVs.
So far, drilling has outlined roughly 14 million metric tons of graphite at the world-class Graphite Creek deposit in Alaska.
Graphite One Inc. April 27 announced that it has received the first active anode material for lithium-ion batteries produced from material derived from its Graphite Creek deposit in western Alaska.
Active anode material, also known as coated spherical graphite, is the single largest ingredient in the lithium batteries powering electric vehicles.
Given the auto sector's rapid transition to EVs, S&P Global Platts' estimates the annual global demand for graphite will rocket to 5 million to 6 million metric tons by 2030. This is roughly a 400% increase from the 1.3 million metric tons of graphite that was mined globally during 2022, none of which was produced in the United States, according to the latest Mineral Commodity Summaries published by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Graphite One hopes to help fill the expected supply gap with a vertically integrated supply chain that includes a mine at its world-class Graphite Creek deposit in Alaska and a facility in Washington where low-cost and low-carbon hydroelectricity will be used to upgrade the concentrates to active anode material and other products.
Sunrise New Energy Material Co. Ltd., an experienced graphite anode materials producer working with Graphite One on the development and operation of the Washington facility, has now produced active anode material from Graphite Creek sample material.
This material has been sent to the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and a leading EV manufacturer for evaluation.
"This is a milestone moment for Graphite One," said Graphite One CEO Anthony Huston. "Being able to provide anode material manufactured from our Graphite Creek feedstock – to both a major EV maker and a U.S. National Lab – is a major step in our strategy to build a 100% U.S.-based advanced graphite supply chain."
Earlier this year, Graphite One announced that it is working with two DOE national labs – Pacific Northwest and Sandia – for testing anode material sourced from Graphite Creek and investigating the potential of extracting other critical minerals from this world-class deposit in western Alaska.
Further details on its work with PNNL and Sandia can be read at Graphite One leverages national lab tech in the February 1, 2023 edition of Metal Tech News.
In addition to the coated spherical graphite made from the Alaska material, Sunrise produced a sample of secondary particle natural graphite.
"Natural secondary particle anode is increasingly important in EVs for fast-charge performance," Graphite One Vice President for Advanced Graphite Materials Andrew Tan explained.
All three samples were produced in Sunrise's commercial scale anode material manufacturing plant. The specific capacity of the first natural graphite sample was 366.4 milliampere-hours per gram mass and the second sample was 364.9 mAh/g – both within 2% of theoretical maximum of 372 mAh/g. The testing also showed that 75% of the Graphite Creek concentrate material could be made into the spheroid shape needed for active anode material.
"The yield we are seeing exceeds what our industry peers are reporting," Tan said.
Considering that Graphite Creek hosts the largest known graphite deposits in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world, according to the USGS, these results are good news for North American automakers that are going to need reliable supplies of this critical EV battery ingredient.
According to a calculation completed earlier this year, Graphite Creek hosts 37.6 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 5.15% (1.9 million metric tons) graphite; plus 243.7 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 5.14% (12.3 million metric tons) graphite.
"The recognition by USGS coupled with this increase in our measured and indicated resources and the fact that we have explored only 26% of our graphite anomaly underscores that Graphite Creek is truly a generational resource," Huston said.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
Reader Comments(1)
Eidolon writes:
Congratulations to Graphite One and Nome! They've moved rapidly through development and into pilot production in a fairly short period of time. All very positive, though they will need to build an all-season road to haul ore (upgraded?) to Nome and stockpile for loading on seasonal marine freight. Is it economic to fly the mine product in bulk bags on commercial air freight services?
04/28/2023, 5:18 am