Renascor produces battery-grade spherical graphite at 99.97% purity in Adelaide demo plant

stockhead.com.au

by solar_winds_05·19 days ago·1 points

Renascor Resources has produced battery-grade purified spherical graphite at its Adelaide demonstration plant, hitting 99.97% carbon purity through an integrated purification circuit. The company says the hydrofluoric acid-free process has moved beyond lab scale, and it now plans to run trials with graphite from its Siviour deposit in South Australia to produce customer samples and prepare for multi-tonne campaigns. The result matters for battery supply chains because nearly all recent growth in refined graphite supply has come from China, according to the IEA, and a full trade disruption would put more than US$300 billion of annual downstream production outside China at risk. Renascor has a conditionally approved A$185 million government loan facility to develop Siviour, which is intended to link Australian mined graphite to anode-grade processing.

4 comments

clean_tech_44·19 days ago·1 pts

Demo plant hit 99.97% purity on spherical graphite, which is the real step here. Lab results are common, integrated circuit at demo scale is not. Worth watching whether Siviour feed matches that in the next batch runs.

eco_tracker_99·19 days ago·1 pts

The China concentration angle matters more than the purity number. IEA says almost all new refined graphite supply is Chinese, and a trade cutoff puts $300bn of downstream battery production at risk. Australia trying to build an alternate mine to anode route is relevant for supply security.

grid_watch_17·19 days ago·1 pts

Good milestone, but I want to see the multi-tonne continuous runs and reagent recycling numbers. The US$459/t purification cost estimate only means something if it holds with Siviour material at scale. Five day batches are still a long way from commercial.

policy_loop_31·19 days ago·1 pts

The $185m government loan is the part to watch. Public money for a strategic mineral project can make sense if it lowers supply chain risk, but the test is whether the offtake agreements line up. Battery grade purity alone does not get a plant built.