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EUROPE

Tuning into Talga

ark Thompson believes Talga Re- of achieving a throughput of 100,000 tpa ed before customers want to go ahead
Msources Ltd is being aptly rewarded @ 23.5% graphitic carbon. with a supply agreement. That is the
for its long-running, two-pronged ap- A DFS on Vittangi is expected in time stage we are at now; qualification of Tal-
proach to the battery sector. for a decision-to-mine in March 2020. node® feed product essentially for Euro-
As a handful of raw materials produc- “Vittangi is at a stage where we want pean anode materials for these compa-
ers in the graphite and lithium space the commercial deals to underwrite the nies,” Thompson said.
come to grips with the realities of deal- funding for it. We’re also looking at a pos- “We are part the way along with some
ing with China, Talga appears on course sible strategic investment and how we go advanced testing but some testing is less
with its ambition of building a European about funding that project. Our strategy advanced than others. As those [prod-
source of advanced battery anode mate- is two-pronged as we are also talking to ucts] mature, we expect to get those
rials and graphene additives for graphitic a whole range of normal strategic inves- material supply agreements, but also po-
product consumers. tors; equity-based investors, debt instru- tential funding opportunities with those
Thompson said Talga had been pretty ments, sovereign wealth funds, the Eu- customers as well.”
“light on its feet” and its ability to respond ropean Investment bank. Everyone you In the meantime, Talga’s UK subsidiary
to fluctuations over time was duly – Talga Technologies Ltd – has had
being recognised in the market success in attracting funding from
now. the UK Government’s ISCF Faraday
“Our strategy to go downstream Battery Challenge initiative to devel-
and invest in that is now being re- op Talnode-E®, a graphite-based
warded and we are not getting anode for solid state batteries.
treated as badly as the raw materi- Talga’s Talnode-E® is intended
als providers. I think going forward to replace metallic lithium anode
you will see more of the down- in solid state batteries and under
stream value-adding strategy being a consortium project co-funded by
rewarded,” Thompson told Paydirt. Innovate UK, Talga has the oppor-
“The chickens are coming home tunity for exposure to current and
to roost for these raw materials emerging battery markets.
strategies; it is hard to out-China Talga’s consortium partners –
China. It is not something we have which can leverage from the UK
ever pursued for this very reason Government’s £246 million Faraday
and we’ve always wanted to go initiative – include specialist chemi-
downstream with a medium-vol- cal and sustainable technologies
ume/high-margin strategy to bring company Johnson Matthey and
synergies and advantages that Sheffield University, a leading bat-
can’t be matched by places like tery research and development in-
China. We didn’t want to be caught stitute.
out as a raw materials supplier Thompson said support from In-
where you are usually in a race to novate UK would help Talga transi-
the bottom on price.” tion from the point of pure R&D to a
Talga itself is in the mix to have market position.
stage one production at Vittangi, north- Mark Thompson “The Innovate UK infrastructure
ern Sweden, in play by mid-2020. not only supports the co-funding of
Thompson said the company was would expect us to look to for financing the development of a product like an an-
close to announcing some news from we are looking at because we want to put ode or super anode in this case, but it
the “fruitful” meetings it was having with stage one into production by mid-next also puts you with top class universities
a range of groups interested in providing year,” Thompson said. and commercial partners,” he said, add-
funding for Vittangi stage one capex of Macquarie Capital Group (Europe) has ing that Talga was now set up to be in-
$27 million. been appointed financial adviser to Tal- volved with battery products of today and
Stage one operations at Vittangi will ga and will focus on engaging strategic newer ones on the horizon.
produce 5,000 tpa of Talnode-C® – Tal- partners and investors for financing of “The emerging battery products com-
ga’s patented anode product – over two Vittangi stage one and two. ing up, such as high silicon, is like the
years. Production from stage one will In support of the commercial activity next generation of batteries. Talga is
be done via trial mining of 25,000t ore being undertaken, Talga is working on its positioning itself to have batteries for to-
by way of toll milling and a first refinery customer development strategy, spend- day, tomorrow and the future; a product
module. ing ample time in both Korea and Japan pipeline that can be sold into the market
The target by 2023 is the implementa- talking to companies who are either look- and expand our opportunities. We want
tion of the $147 million stage two, a dedi- ing or have already shifted into building to make sure that we don’t get caught in
cated anode refinery producing 19,000 new mega battery factories in Europe. any technology trap, where technology
tpa production of Talnode-C® for supply “We have product being sent out to changes and you don’t have the right
to the lithium-ion battery industry. From these companies for testing. Unlike met- product. The UK is great for that and it
a 2mt reserve, Vittangi has capabilities als, products have to be extensively test- has got its advantages.”

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