Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday inspected the Collie processing and R&D facility of International Graphite’s (ASX:IG6) to see first-hand the contribution the Company is making to the development of Australia’s critical minerals industry.
The Collie facility, located 200 kilometres south of Perth, is the first downstream graphite pilot and product qualification plant in Australia and a key link in the Company’s mine-to-market development strategy, which includes downstream processing at Collie and development of one of the nation’s largest graphite resources at Springdale, also in Western Australia.
International Graphite has secured $13.2 million1 in funding from the Australian and Western Australian Governments for its role in building the nation’s battery minerals capability and supporting Collie’s economic transition.
Prime Minister Albanese was accompanied by Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen, and Assistant Minister Josh Wilson. They were joined by Western Australia’s Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Reece Whitby, Member for Collie-Preston MLA Jodie Hanns, and WA Government representatives.
IG6 Chairman Phil Hearse applauded the Government’s strategy which recognises the national benefits of building Australia’s critical minerals capability, and the importance of adding value to the nation’s raw materials.
“Hosting the Prime Minister and Ministers Bowen and Wilson, and WA Minister Whitby, was a great privilege and illustrates the commitment and interest Government is bringing to our industry,” Mr Hearse said.
“We are seeing growing demand for Australian product, particularly in allied markets like the US, Europe, Japan and Korea.
“The knowledge International Graphite is acquiring from its qualification plant operations here in Collie, along with valued support from both the Commonwealth and State, has been critical in helping to develop our downstream processing strategy.”
The Collie facility is home to International Graphite’s pilot scale graphite micronising and spheroidising equipment and a qualification-scale micronising plant that is producing product for customer acceptance testing.
Sample graphite product is currently being transported to potential customers in the battery materials, defence, plastics, lubricants, and aerospace industries worldwide.
Since its commissioning earlier this year, 2,000 person hours have been successfully completed with no lost time incidents recorded. An ISO 9001:2015 audit has also been completed confirming that appropriate quality management systems are in place to support the operation.
Plans are underway to expand the Collie facilities to achieve nameplate capacity of 4,000 tonnes of micronised products per annum, following the award of $4.5 million in Western Australian Government funding in April 2024.
The plant will be tailored to process graphite mined at the Company’s 100% owned Springdale Graphite Project, on the south coast of WA, establishing one of the first fully integrated mine-to-market graphite operations in the western world. International Graphite plans to develop one of Australia’s first anode production facilities for the lithium-ion battery industry.
As well as being the first stage in the production of graphite for lithium-ion battery anodes, and a critical conductive additive in battery cathodes, micronised graphite is widely used in many defence, electronics and industrial products, such as plastics, ceramics, refractory items, adhesives and lubricants.
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