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EcoGraf manufactures vital

funding support

ustralia’s embattled manufacturing sec- to leverage off the minerals we have now to “Australia is obviously endowed with a
Ator received a timely boost last month get manufacturing back into Australia. massive amount of other battery and critical
with two ASX-listed graphite hopefuls offered “This in-principle funding support indi- minerals, so we could see the Government
in-principle debt funding support from the cates the Government is serious about val- wanting to invest and support battery miner-
Federal Government. ue-adding battery minerals in Australia and al value-adding. And we could see financing
Export Finance Australia – the official ex- I think it’s well recognised now that we have support potentially.
port credit agency of the Australian Govern- an opportunity over the next few years to es- “We were also evaluating some Asian
ment – issued letters of support to EcoGraf tablish these supply chains. If we don’t, we’re locations for the plant, but some of those
Ltd and Renascor Resources Ltd for poten- going to miss out on enormous value-adding locations we were looking at were actually
tial debt financing support for their respective opportunities for our critical and battery-re- considered as a supply chain risk.
downstream projects in Western Australia lated minerals.” “Given that a lot of the battery minerals are
and South Australia. As part of the next phase of due diligence, now coming out of WA, it’s not that obscure
Both offers remain subject to further due both EcoGraf and Renascor will have to se- to think that we could locate and develop a
diligence. cure binding offtake deals for their respec- business around value-adding graphite in
EcoGraf is proposing to build a $72 mil- tive graphite products, continue to advance WA.”
lion battery graphite purification plant in Kwi- pre-development activities such as EPC Spinks also welcomed news of the peace
nana and has already prepared a detailed contracts and identify appropriate sites for deal between the Tanzanian Government
financial model that incorporates a potential their downstream facilities. and Barrick Gold Corp following a three-
$US35 million debt funding package. Spinks said his company was engaged year standoff which curtailed the progress of
Renascor’s EFA support covers both the with several interested parties on the offtake a number of other companies based in the
Siviour graphite concentrate project and the side of the equation and was also close to East African country.
associated downstream spherical graphite finalising terms for an EPC contract with GR “The year really couldn’t have started bet-
facility. Engineering Services Ltd over the proposed ter for us,” he said. “We got into 2020 and
With Holden recently exiting Australia’s 20,000 tpa battery-grade graphite plant. we just had a series of breakthrough news
car industry and the full impact of the coro- A 6.7ha industrial site in Kwinana has and milestone announcements, particularly
navirus pandemic yet to play out, demand for been earmarked for the plant and EcoGraf with Barrick and Tanzania resolving to settle
opportunities in the country’s manufacturing continues to work with state government their dispute, and that inspired KfW to look at
sector are likely to remain high for some con- agency Development WA to secure that de- moving forward with the debt financing.
siderable time. sired plot of land. “We think the process will take a little bit
EcoGraf managing director Andrew It has been a positive six months for Eco- more time to finalise [due to the coronavirus],
Spinks said Australia needed to find a way to Graf after undergoing a rebranding strategy but we’re confident we’ve got the support of
restore its manufacturing capabilities. focused more on the downstream side of the KfW to take this financing through.”
“I think this predicament we’re in now with business, which Spinks said was a natural Spinks added that he does not expect
the coronavirus demonstrates that if we progression from the company’s ongoing the travel restrictions imposed by Australian
don’t have our own manufacturing and we work at the Epanko graphite project in Tan- state and federal governments to combat
close our borders, it makes things a little bit zania. the global coronavirus pandemic will hinder
tough,” Spinks told Paydirt. “We just saw huge support from the state his company’s ability to secure debt financ-
“We’ve lost a lot of our manufacturing ca- and federal governments for battery manu- ing for the Kwinana facility.
pability and we need to get it back. We need facturing in Australia,” Spinks said.
– Michael Washbourne

EcoGraf is proposing to build a
20,000 tpa battery graphite purification
plant in Kwinana, Western Australia

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT aPRIL 2020 Page 47