You should have posted the other article @Giose SYR gets a large...

You should have posted the other article @Giose SYR gets a large mention just under the heading of Alabama Graphite. With grades of 2.39%, their Coosa mine which they intend to start mining in 2028 will be borderline economic.

EV revolution drives graphite demand

The global transition to electric vehicles plugged into renewable energy sources is powering enormous demand for graphite, the single largest ingredient in lithium-ion batteries.

"Graphite demand increases in both absolute and percentage terms since graphite is needed to build the anodes found in the most commonly deployed automotive, grid, and decentralized batteries," the World Bank penned in a 2020 report, "The Mineral Intensity of the Clean Energy Transition."

According to global lithium-ion battery experts at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a battery megafactory capable of producing 30 gigawatt-hours of annual capacity requires about 33,000 metric tons of graphite anode material per year.

When you extrapolate this out over the more than 200 battery megafactories that are being built or are in the pipeline, this equates to up to 5.4 million metric tons of battery-grade graphite anode material per year.

The International Energy Agency forecasts that the electric mobility and low-carbon energy sectors will demand 25 times more graphite per year by 2040 than today.

And this does not account for the traditional brake linings, lubricants, powdered metals, steelmaking, refractory, and other more traditional applications for this highly useful form of carbon.

According to "Mineral Commodity Summaries 2021," an annual report published by the United States Geological Survey, there are currently no graphite mines in the U.S., leaving American manufacturers reliant on imports for 41,000 metric tons of this industrial carbon allotrope.

China produced roughly 59% of the world's mined graphite during 2020. The next closest graphite producers were Mozambique (11%), Brazil (9%), and Madagascar (4%).

When it comes to battery-grade graphite anode material, which is flake graphite that has been rolled into potato-shaped spheres and coated in a hard carbon shell that must be thermally treated, China was the only commercial-scale producer in 2020.

"North America produced only 2% of the world's graphite supply with production in Canada and Mexico," USGS inked in its 2021 mineral commodities report. "No production of natural graphite was reported in the United States, but two companies were developing graphite projects – one in Alabama and one in Alaska."

Both these companies – Westwater Resources Inc. in Alabama and Graphite One Inc. in Alaska – have plans to develop both graphite mines and the processing facilities to produce the spherical graphite that serves as the anode material in most lithium-ion batteries.

In Canada, Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. is making progress on a similar strategy to supply battery manufactures with graphite anode material from the mine and processing facilities it is developing in Quebec.

Alabama graphite

Alabama is rapidly emerging as a center for producing the advanced anode material needed by North American automakers.

Westwater plans to have a graphite processing plant operating in Alabama by the end of 2022 and begin mining fresh supplies of the battery material from the Yellowhammer State's famed Alabama Graphite Belt by 2028.

In June, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed an incentive package that will provide Alabama Graphite Products, a subsidiary of Westwater, with $29.9 million in jobs and tax credits over 15 years, and $925,000 in job training and employee recruitment incentives for a facility that will produce the battery-grade graphite anode material needed for lithium-ion batteries.

"This plant not only will make Alabama the U.S. leader in graphite production, the go-to place for this important resource in battery manufacturing, it also will elevate our standing even more as a major player in the fast-growing electric vehicle sector," Ivey said. "We're home to four major auto plants, and the ability to source precious materials in-state for the lithium-ion batteries used in electric and hybrid vehicles will be a big plus in attracting other manufacturing jobs to the state."

Alabama Graphite's processing plant will initially produce approximately 7,500 tons of battery-grade graphite per year, and the company has plans to double this output.

The initial investment for this facility is expected to be at least $80 million, with another $44 million for the second phase.

Construction is expected to begin later this year, with the plant upgrading third-party graphite concentrates into high-value anode material by the end of 2022.

"Even though the raw graphite we will process into battery-grade material will be imported initially, none of it will be from China. We have secured agreements from other providers," said Westwater Resources President and CEO Chris Jones.

While the company has not named its providers, Syrah Resources Ltd. and its Balama mine in Mozambique would be a good fit.

With roughly 16.9 million metric tons of graphite hosted in 107.54 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 15.7% graphitic carbon, Balama is one of the world's most significant sources of graphite.

Some of the raw graphite mined at Balama is being shipped to Syrah's plant in Vidalia, Louisiana, where it is being upgraded into lithium-ion battery anode material.

Syrah's Vidalia facility has the capacity to produce 5,000 metric tons of unpurified spherical graphite and, with the installation of the furnace, upgrade 200 metric tons to active anode material.

While 200 metric tons per year of active anode material only represents a fraction of the current and forecasted needs in the U.S., it takes Syrah a step in the right direction and provides battery manufacturers a sample of the product to be commercially produced in Louisiana.

Whether or not Syrah is a provider of material for Westwater's Alabama Graphite plant, the Colorado-based miner plans to have an in-state source when it develops a mine at its Coosa project in the Alabama Graphite Belt.

According to a 2015 calculation, Coosa hosts 78.5 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 2.39% (1.9 million metric tons) graphitic carbon; plus 79.4 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 2.56% (2 million metric tons) graphitic carbon.

Vanadium, a critical metal emerging as an important ingredient in large redox flow batteries for storing renewable energy, has also been identified at Coosa. Westwater is evaluating this vanadium potential at Coosa ahead of developing a graphite mine there, which is expected to go into production in 2028.

"Whether it's mining or processing graphite, our company is committed to doing it in an environmentally safe, sustainable manner," said Jones. "The biggest virtue of electric vehicles and other battery-powered products is they reduce carbon emissions and are better for the environment. Producing the key materials for those batteries, we believe, can and should be done in an environmentally responsible way as well."