Graphite from Lithium Energy’s Burke deposit in Queensland has returned striking purification test results of more than 99.97 per cent total graphitic carbon (TGC), confirming it as battery anode feedstock just as global demand is set to rise.
With world powerhouse China recently declaring tough restrictions on its graphite exports, companies such as Lithium Energy will be positioning to cash in on the expected spike in demand for the commodity that is vital in the making of lithium-ion batteries.
The company’s spheronising and purification testwork was conducted in Germany with low-cost, environmentally safer, non-hydrofluoric acid processes and will feed the battery anode material (BAM) facility component of the Burke project’s prefeasibility study (PFS).
Lithium Energy says the testwork achieved an overall recovery of 63 per cent – considered to be extremely positive in-light-of industry standards of recoveries between 45 and 55 per cent.
Key PFS metrics such as reagent consumption, product size, product recovery and purification conditions have now been determined, clearing the way for the study to progress, in addition to the development of a BAM pilot plant in Queensland. The company is also moving ahead with a PFS for the development of a vertically-integrated BAM manufacturing facility in Queensland.
The plan will involve mining graphite at Burke and producing a 95 per cent total graphitic carbon (TGC) graphite flake concentrate at site before trucking the concentrate to a manufacturing facility for further processing into a final saleable BAM product.
The exceptional results of the BAM testwork conducted on the 95% TGC Burke Graphite concentrate have surpassed expectations. We anticipate that the restrictions placed on graphite exports by China will further tighten the market and accelerate the demand for natural graphite, which is a key battery anode material required in all Li-Ion batteries. Lithium Energy executive chairman William Johnson.
With the purification process and criteria identified, the company will now undertake electrochemical testing on the BAM from its Burke deposit to provide data on charge efficiency and energy delivery, with results due back in next year’s first quarter. The results will define the material’s ultimate performance in a battery as the anode material, or as the negatively-charged part.
Graphite is sometimes the forgotten child of battery metal markets, but it makes up 40 per cent of a battery by weight.
China’s move last month to introduce export permits on its graphite products from December 1 is expected to greatly restrict the world’s spherical graphite availability, forcing electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers to look elsewhere for supply.
Currently, China supplies about 74 per cent of the world’s graphite and Morgan Stanley estimated demand to increase at 9 per cent per annum to meet decarbonisation demands.
In April, Lithium Energy’s North Queensland acreage received a boost when the company revealed an upgrade of its Burke deposit to a total indicated and inferred mineral resource of 9.1 million tonnes at 14.4per cent TGC for a total of 1.3 million tonnes of contained graphite.
Just two months later, it continued that trend going by adding another 1.3 million tonnes of contained graphite at its Corella tenement, 100km to the south of Burke, with the deposit’s maiden inferred mineral resource is going 3.5 million tonnes at 9.5 per cent TGC.
Then last month, the company announced that drilling at its Solaroz lithium brine project in Argentina had produced results to support a total indicated and inferred resource of 3.3 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent. The scoping study showed that the South American project could churn out an eye watering $1.15 billion a year for a 19-year mine life.
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