 | Get all the essential market news and expert opinions in one place with our daily newsletter. Receive a comprehensive recap of the day's top stories directly to your inbox. Sign up here! |
(Kitco News) - On Thursday, NextSource Materials (TSX: NEXT) (OTCQB: NSRCF) announced the first production of SuperFlake® graphite concentrate at its Molo mine in Madagascar.
The company said that as part of the commissioning and optimization of the processing plant, the commissioning sequence was prioritized for initial production of coarse flake concentrate, with the first tonne of production consisting of +48 mesh (jumbo size) SuperFlake® graphite.
"With this significant milestone, we have received requests from major EV OEMs for multi-tonne samples of battery anode material as part of their qualification process. As such, we will begin sending our SuperFlake® graphite to our technical partners for conversion into coated, spheronized, purified graphite, which is the final form of anode material that is assembled along with cathode material into finished lithium-ion batteries for EV applications,” it added.
NextSource also reported that the mine operations team is now focused on ramping up the plant throughput to its nameplate capacity of 17,000 tpa.
The company said it expects to sell all the flake graphite produced at the Molo graphite mine to key customers under existing offtake agreements, which includes Germany's thyssenkrupp Materials Trading and the company's Japanese technical partner, whom is the main supplier of value-added graphite to Japan's largest anode processor.
NextSource Materials is a battery materials development company. The company's Molo graphite project in Madagascar is one of the largest known and highest-quality graphite resources globally, and the only one with SuperFlake® graphite. The Molo mine has begun production, with phase 1 mine operations currently being optimized to reach its nameplate production capacity of 17,000 tpa of graphite concentrate.
The company is also developing a significant downstream graphite value-add business through the staged rollout of battery anode facilities capable of large-scale production of coated, spheronized and purified graphite for direct delivery to battery and automotive customers, outside of existing Asian supply chains. The first of its battery anode facilities will be located in Mauritius with initial production targeted in Q3 2024.
|
| Harmony Gold expects to meet its production and cost guidance in FY23 |
