@JRNB,It is not surprising to me to have Northvolt talking about...

@JRNB,
It is not surprising to me to have Northvolt talking about multiple suppliers; Talga has already stated that anode supply for the upcoming permits is already oversubscribed by a factor of 10; Northvolt cannot get all they want from Talga alone... unless somehow permitting changes and talga 10x's their current mining plan, which is possible. As others have mentioned, Mark Thompson seems to want to only gradually scale up and let demand inflate prices before massively upscaling.I am sure everyone from VW to battery cell suppliers are on the lookout for making anode themselves.

This forum has discussed at length what would be required for competition to become a serious threat, and I have yet to see anything imminently credible. Natural graphite takes years to set up a mine, do environmental analysis, all the stuff Talga has done for 10 years-- and talga has the cheapest means of producing it/highest grade. Even with an expedited permitting process I cant really fathom a company setting up their own natural anode project faster than 5 years from the moment they announce their intentions, and that would be blazing fast. That would need a very permissive governmental entity, a proven system, knowledge of the proven system, and essentially insider knowledge of how Talga operates. Mark Thompson could do such a thing, I suppose, but I cant imagine there are too many others out there. As for synthetic graphite, well, maybe that Hazer process can be built at scale 5 or 10 years from now, but it is still very preliminary. It seems far more likely to me that though consumers chafe at the anode market 3 to 5 years from now, there is nothing they can do about it other than pressure Sweden to approve more mines for talga, help talga with financing (If we need it), and hope for the best, in terms of local supply. I mean if LKAB has its own deposits somewhere Northvolt could refine the anode themselves, but again, multiple years of testing required.

In the US/Canada, there are a few companies who are trying to set up mining claims for graphite. There is nothing nearly as advanced as Talga; nouveau monde is at least 2-3 years behind in finished product, again, assuming they play their cards perfectly, even if they are ahead in permitting because Quebec really likes to mine. In the US there is like 1 company that claims to want to one day mine graphite and refine anode material (Westwater Resources), but they really just started this conversation a year ago. They have to be more like 4-5 years behind production, even with the US government potentially backing their projects as a strategic resource. Yeah there are a smattering of graphite mines being prospected, and my opinion is that Focus graphite (another Quebec mine) is furthest along, but they are still working on environmental permits; currently they are designing a tailing storage system. It seems that Focus will contract their mining out to a mining company, take the concentrate and try to either sell it as-is or treat it with silicon. I have not seen any announcements about Focus being in consumer qualifications for anode material. From my vantage point at least the story isnt nearly as clear or developed, though I could be mistaken. In any case, demand is expected to so far outstrip supply that we probably dont need to worry too much one way or the other.