The company’s vision for a complete mine-to-market supply chain in Western Australia leverages the state’s global reputation as a secure, reliable and technically advanced resource jurisdiction.
The company has been awarded AU$13.2 million in grants from Australian state and commonwealth governments in recognition of its significance to the development of Australia’s sovereign battery minerals capability.
Market attention worldwide is swinging to graphite which is essential for global decarbonization and fast becoming one of the most politically contested of all the critical battery minerals.
Graphite is flexible, conductive, heat and corrosion resistant. For decades it has been used to manufacture everything from ceramics and lubricants to plastics and steel.
It is also a major ingredient in batteries of all kinds, making up 95 percent of the active anode in lithium-ion batteries which are the gold standard for electric vehicles, renewable energy storage and advanced medical, defense and aerospace devices.
Of all the components in a lithium-ion battery, the biggest volume is in graphite. It can take 50 to 100 kilograms of graphite to make a single EV battery – up to 10 times more graphite than lithium.
Currently, China supplies over 80 percent of the world’s processed graphite, so its decision to restrict exports to western customers came as a shock in late 2023.
With limited graphite sources of its own, and limited prospects in the near term, the US is leading the way, closely followed by Europe, offering unprecedented incentives to fast-track graphite supply from reliable domestic and allied sources.
Springdale is one of the largest graphite deposits in Australia and was named Discovery of the Year in the respected 2023 Prospect Awards.
Springdale is the site of the company’s planned graphite mine which will provide a consistent and reliable feed of graphite concentrates for downstream processing and give the company full control of its supply chain. A scoping study, released in January 2024, showed the planned open pit operation would be globally cost competitive with a long, multi-decade mine life.
Metallurgical testwork on Springdale concentrates, completed by specialist testing laboratories in Australia and overseas, shows the high-grade, fine flake Springdale ore is ideally suited for the production of battery anode material.
The regional community around Springdale relies heavily on the mining sector and has applauded moves to establish a new mine in their area.
International Graphite’s Collie R&D and Process Facility is a first for Australia and a key link in the company’s mine-to-market strategy.
The Collie facility is home to pilot scale graphite micronizing and spheroidizing equipment, thermal purification equipment, and a qualification-scale micronizing plant that is currently producing sample products for assessment by potential customers in the battery materials, Defense, plastics, lubricants, and aerospace industries.
As well as being widely used in industrial applications, and a critical conductive additive in battery cathodes, micronized graphite is the first stage in the production of active anode material for lithium-ion batteries.
International Graphite plans to expand micronizing at Collie to commercial scale by 2025 while progressing the design of its advanced battery anode material manufacturing facilities. The plant design will be tailored to process Springdale graphite concentrates.
Located 450 km by road from Springdale, and close to major export ports, the regional township of Collie is the centre of Western Australia’s electricity generating infrastructure.
One of Australia’s leading metallurgists and an authority on graphite project development, Phil Hearse founded International Graphite in 2018 and continues to lead the company’s growth and development. An engineer with more than 40 years of experience in diverse and challenging projects around the world, his extensive career has taken him from operational and technical roles at Broken Hill, Bougainville Copper, Queensland Nickel (QNI) and Gove Alumina to senior executive and managerial positions in engineering and operating companies.
Andrew Worland is a mining executive and experienced ASX/TSX director with over 25 years in senior finance, corporate, project management and marketing roles in the Western Australian mining sector.
Worland’s commodity experience includes exploration, development and operations in lead, zinc, nickel, cobalt, gold, iron ore, molybdenum, copper and uranium. He has a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in finance and marketing from the University of Western Australia and is a qualified chartered company secretary and has achieved Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia.
David Pass has played a key role in the technical development of International Graphite since the company’s inception. A metallurgist with 30 years in the mining industry, he brings a mix of operational processing, process design, project, due diligence skills and management experience including mine operations experience with Barrick Gold.
Pass is chief executive officer of Battery Limits and an acknowledged expert in graphite primary and downstream processing and has led several studies in graphite project development to definitive feasibility level. He holds a Bachelor of Science in metallurgy from Murdoch University and is a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
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