The loans were issued to Syrah to bolster investment in the US and counter Beijing’s grip on critical minerals, a key battleground in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Syrah is one of the few non-Chinese miners of graphite, an important ingredient in lithium-ion batteries.
The US Department of Energy loaned $US102 million to Syrah in 2022 to help it build a graphite-processing plant in Louisiana near customers such as Tesla, while the IDFC has loaned $US150 million to help fund works at the Balama mine.
“We haven’t defaulted on any repayments under the loans, but we have had ‘events of default’ under conditions of the loan,” said Syrah’s chief executive, Shaun Verner, citing a failure to meet some key output milestones and project timelines due to disruptions caused by protests at the mine.
SYR Price at posting:
33.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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