Page 30 - pd279-Feb20-mag-web_Neat

BATTERY MINERALS PREVIEWATTERY MINERALS PREVIEW
B

Talga heads downstream

in graphite dream

ears of piloting and marketing of its
Ygraphene products has Talga Re-
sources Ltd confident it can meet cus-
tomer expectations when it comes to
producing a marketable graphite product
this year.
The difficulty of meeting customer de-
mands around consistency and reliability
of product specifications has proven an
obstacle for a string of graphite and other
industrial mineral-type developers in re-
cent years, but Talga managing director
Mark Thompson believes his company’s
experience in graphene gives it a natural
advantage.
“It can be a real challenge for min-
ing companies to take graphite from
one state to another which customers
can use,” Thompson told Paydirt. “But
we have a gained a lot of experience in
downstream processing and marketing
from our graphene work. We have used
a lot of the technology, people and pro-
cessing we developed for the graphene
business to inform us on graphite and the
pathway to an anode product.”
In May last year, Talga announced an
NPV of $US1.05 billion for its Vittangi
graphite project in northern Sweden. The
PFS envisaged Talga producing a fully
purified, shaped and coated graphite
anode product suitable for direct use in
lithium-ion batteries.
Talga’s pursuit of downstream pro-
cessing contrasts with ASX-listed graph-
ite peers who have largely preferred to
stick to concentrate production and steer
clear of higher risk refined products.
Thompson said experience in the gra-
phene space meant value-addition held
no fears for Talga.
“The conversion of the uncoated spher-
ical graphite to the final product is the
part of the chain with the largest margin;
that’s why we are investing in it,” he said.
“We are an advanced materials producer
already. We have our test facility in Ger-
many, and we have a team which works
on advanced materials every day and we
have worked closely with customers so
our understanding is extensive.”
The PFS was based on a staged ap-
proach at Vittangi. Conventional open
pit mining of the 1.9mt @ 23.5% TGC
reserve (part of a wider 10.7mt @ 25.7%
TGC resource) would be followed by on-
site processing before a concentrate is
Talga is beginning to field inquiries from end-users
eager to secure future supplies of anode material
Page 30 FeBRUaRY 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT