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"While a large number of countries around the world continue to talk about securing raw material supply, China is actually doing something about it."
Graphex Technologies announced last week its Warren processing facility has secured the necessary environmental permit from the Air Quality Division of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.
Graphex Technologies is a wholly owned US subsidiary of Graphex Group Limited (NYSE: GRFX | HKSE: 6128), a Cayman Island company which already has a self-contained graphite processing ecosystem in China. Its Graphene division currently produces 10,000 metric tonnes per year of purified spherical graphite at its facility in Heilongjiang Province. Like rare earths, most graphite travels through China, either mined or processed there.
Last year, the company established a Graphex Michigan joint venture when it bought a former automotive plant in Warren in a $75 million investment with plans to turn it into a graphite processing plant.
While there is a need for 200,000 tonnes of graphite to meet demand, the reality is, the current US supply capability is zero.
“We’re expanding and diversifying – and we were on the move for this whole domestication effort before it became fashionable,” Graphex Technologies CEO John DeMaio told MINING.com last year.
Canada has gotten into gear, with graphite operations in Ontario and Quebec. In 2020, Canada’s graphite industry exported C$31.6 million worth of product, according to the NRC.
This permit allows the project to move forward with final design and equipment orders for the Warren site and supports the company’s efforts to establish Warren as a key player in the refinement and production of battery materials for the Detroit area’s emerging electric vehicle industry, Graphex said in a news release.
In addition to greenlighting further development of the Warren facility, the permit enables Graphex to continue evaluation of potential locations in and around Warren for a shaping and purifying plant to correspond with its pitch coating plant, it said.
As major car manufacturers make investments in Michigan to expand electrification, a localized end-to-end battery mineral supply chain nearby will reduce potential logistical challenges, Graphex said.
Transforming raw material to finished product, Graphex will provide ready battery anode material for original equipment manufacturers and gigafactories as they ramp up production and meet nearly 400,000 tons of projected yearly demand for graphite.
“Our discussions and negotiations with OEMs and automakers have demonstrated the imminent and yet enormous supply/demand mismatch for graphite, and securing this permit is another milestone in our plans to bring needed end-to-end capabilities to the Detroit area and beyond,” DeMaio said in a news release.
“We stand by our commitment to building out a robust domestic battery mineral supply chain in support of an electrified future and Warren is just the first step of many to come.”
This week, Graphex announced the formation of a strategic advisory board to inform their ongoing North American growth.
