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sAReIc PReVIeW

Siviour’s tale of pursue a downstream
Renascor continues
to aggressively

two paths strategy for its Siviour
graphite project on
South Australia’s Eyre
Peninsula

he type of offtake Renascor Resources strategy. Following completion of the con-
TLtd secures for its Siviour graphite pro- centrate DFS, the company confirmed pu-
ject will determine its ultimate path to devel- rification tests on Siviour material had suc-
opment. cessfully produced battery-grade graphite
Locking down an offtake agreement has with purities of up to 99.98% total carbon.
been a top priority for Renascor managing Before the end of 2019, the company David Christensen
director David Christensen since his com- also entered into a non-binding MoU with
pany published a robust DFS on production Sicona Battery Technologies to jointly de-
of graphite concentrate from Siviour last velop battery anode material. $77 million expansion to 144,000 tpa.
November. Under the first phase of the MoU, Renas- Siviour’s estimated operating costs of
The critical question Christensen and his cor will provide samples of purified spherical $508/t ($US355/t) are understood to be
team have been grappling with, however, graphite from Siviour for high-performance among the lowest for any graphite project
remains whether to deal with a concen- testing in both standard-energy anodes globally.
trate-based customer or someone seek- and next-generation silicon-composite an- Up to 80% of the capex is expected to
ing a value-added downstream spherical ode materials using Sicona’s proprietary qualify for in-principle support from Dutch
graphite product. Renascor has previously technologies. export credit agency Atradius, subject to
stated its preference to enter the lithium ion “Sicona has a next generation anode Renascor finalising a procurement strategy
battery anode market. technology that they’re trying to develop with its likely EPC contractor Royal IHC.
Christensen spent much of December in and they’d like to develop that anode capac- “We feel reasonably comfortable on the
North Asia meeting with potential custom- ity here in Australia,” Christensen said. finance side because banks will be willing
ers and was due to head overseas again at “We’d like nothing better than to see a to come in if we get the export credit [fi-
the time of print for the next round of offtake homegrown anode business here, so we’re nance approval],” Christensen said.
discussions. quite happy to work with them. They’re “But, we can only get the export credit
“We got a pretty good reception to the still in the development stage, but it’s quite if we have good offtake. So, where’s the
DFS from some of the offtake partners promising and if they’re successful then I best offtake? Well, the best offtake is in
we’ve been talking to, particularly on the suspect you’ll see them racing ahead very the anode sector and some of the people
anode side,” Christensen told Paydirt. quickly. we’re talking to are telling us ‘look, we’d like
“People are interested in the product we “They’ll be taking our material and testing a spherical graphite product, so we want
can make, either as a concentrate or as a it in coin cells. This is going to be quite use- the downstream product, we don’t want
downstream product, so that’s really the top ful for us, too, because it gives validation the concentrate product because then that
priority for us, to put an offtake contract in the graphite ore and spherical graphite we needs to get shipped to China’. These are
place. produce is going to work in anode cells. So, all the critical questions we’re looking at
“We think the DFS really positions our- it helps us de-risk the project even more.” right now.
selves potentially as one of, if not the best According to the concentrate DFS pub- “For us, what’s going to happen over the
positioned companies to provide spherical lished in November, Renascor will need next month, it’s really going to be focused
graphite to people who want non-Chinese $114 million to fund an initial 80,000 tpa on offtake, getting ourselves ready for due
supply.” operation at Siviour, about 15km west of diligence and looking much more closely at
Renascor completed a PFS on a down- Arno Bay on South Australia’s Eyre Penin- that downstream.”
stream option for Siviour early last year sula. Cash flow from the first four years of – Michael Washbourne
and continues to aggressively pursue that production will then be used to underpin the

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