China’s niche metals export ban lifts prospects for Canadian firms
Canadian companies dabbling in these minerals include Teck Resources, Neo Performance Materials and Northern Graphite.
Graphjet Technology (Nasdaq: GTI), a Malaysia-headquartered developer of technologies to produce graphite directly from agricultural waste, announced Tuesday the start of operations at its first commercial-scale facility located in the Subang district.
The over 91,000-square-foot facility, the company said, is the world’s first commercial-scale plant capable of recycling palm kernel shells, an abundant agricultural waste byproduct in Malaysia, to produce battery-grade graphite.
The new facility has the capacity to recycle up to 9,000 metric tons of palm kernel shells annually, producing up to 3,000 metric tons of graphite per year, Graphjet said, adding that the level of production is sufficient to support battery production for approximately 40,000 electric vehicles per year.
Graphjet said it has has received its first shipment of palm kernel shells and has begun shipping green graphite product samples to the market.
The company plans to produce hard carbon at the facility to provide feedstock for its planned green graphite facility in Nevada, which it is aiming to commission and begin production at in 2026.
“With this facility online, Graphjet is now the primary player in green graphite production outside of China, as the company has the largest production capacity ex-China,” CEO Aiden Lee said in a news release. “This facility, which is the first green graphite facility to commence operations outside of China, demonstrates our ability to leverage our technology at scale.”
Graphjet said its technology is expected to have the lowest carbon footprint of any graphite production process in the world.
