The company's Lac-Aux-Bouleaux property is adjacent to the south of the Lac des Iles mine, the only operating graphite mine currently in North America.

Santa Cruz will be the first new graphite production in the Americas since 1996.

Oakland-based Molten Industries has developed a specialized technique to break methane into graphite.mo

The proposed expansion will increase the Molo mine's capacity by nearly nine times to 150,000 tpa.

The two aim to produce the key commodity used in lithium-ion batteries and processing it without needing water, chemicals or reagents.

China continues to dominate the EV market, as every second electric car sold globally in the past year was made in the country.

Both governments step up efforts to reduce their reliance on Chinese supplies of energy transition minerals.

The US Treasury Department gave automakers additional flexibility on battery mineral requirements for EV tax credits on some minerals from China, such as graphite.