Quantum Graphite and its joint venture partner Sunlands Energy Co have received a term sheet from US EXIM Bank for a loan of up to $US300 million ($447 million) to fund its Utile project in the US.
The term sheet from US EXIM Bank is non-binding but if it proceeds, it will be used to complete the end supply chain for the production and delivery of refined flake graphite to the east coast of the US, also known as the Utile project.
The Utile project comprises two distinct activities and related logistics that, combined, ensure a platform is maintained for US domestic production of purified graphite.
The platform is set to commence with the delivery up to 100,000 tonnes of high-purity graphite per annum.
Utile was designed with the capability to grow US domestic production from Quantum-sourced flake graphite concentrate and flake concentrate from the eastern Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, which is where Quantum’s Uley mine is located.
The financing from US EXIM Bank will cover Quantum’s mining and production of flake graphite concentrate at Uley and the production of high-purity graphite at a Sunlands facility to be located in South Carolina. It will also cover logistics facilities in South Australia and the US.
Quantum and Sunlands’ joint venture involves Quantum producing graphite flake from its Uley mine.
The flake will be produced with the highest levels of purity by utilising a sustainable process entirely powered by renewable energy.
The process combines the release of graphite particles through sequential concentrating and delaminating of flake. A basic thermo-chemical will then deliver 99.9 per cent graphite through a treatment utilising technology from Sunlands.
Sundlands uses the flakes to manufacture graphite-based storage media to install in its long duration energy storage cells.
Along with other battery minerals such as lithium, cobalt and manganese, graphite is considered a critical mineral in Australia.
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