Excerpt from article by Shane Lasley, Mining News
Graphite as a Critical Mineral
At least 125 million electric vehicles are expected to be traveling global highways by 2030, which means the world is going to need a lot more graphite in the coming decade and beyond.
This is because graphite serves as the anode in the lithium-ion batteries that power these EVs, not to mention the growing number of portable tools and electronics that use the same type of battery.
According to Mineral Commodity Summaries 2019, an annual report published by the United States Geological Survey, there are currently no graphite mines in the United States, a dearth that required domestic manufacturers to import mined graphite for roughly 40,000 metric tons of the carboniferous material used in the U.S. during 2018.
China was the largest supplier of this graphite, followed by Mexico, Canada, and Brazil.
This dependence on foreign suppliers and rocketing demand are the key reasons USGS includes graphite on its list of 35 minerals and metals considered critical to the United States.
USGS sees a major spike in U.S. demand for graphite when Tesla Motor's Gigafactory, an enormous lithium-ion battery facility being constructed in Nevada, is fully operational.
The Gigafactory, partially complete, is producing the batteries going into the cars coming off Tesla's assembly-line.
Once complete, this 10-million-square-foot plant in Nevada is expected to be able to manufacture enough batteries for roughly half a million Tesla's per year.
This plant alone will need around 35,200 tons of spherical graphite per year, a special form of graphite that is manufactured for batteries.
The spherical shape allows the graphite to be more efficiently packed into battery cells, while the coating extends the graphite's lifetime capacity.
It is expected to take about 2.9 tons of average flake graphite to make 1 ton of spherical graphite.
The Traceable Carbon Supply Chain Platform
U.S. Must Secure Graphite Supply
With the growing number of EVs expected to drive lithium-ion battery demand, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Managing Director Simon Moores told U.S. legislators that America is not doing enough to secure reliable sources of graphite and other materials that go into these cells.
"We are in the midst of a global battery arms race in which the U.S. is presently a bystander," the global battery materials authority inked in a testimony to the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Benchmark estimates that the amount of graphite needed for the anode material in lithium-ion batteries will rocket to 1.75 million metric tons by 2028, a nine-fold increase over 2017 levels.
The battery analysts said China supplied 56 percent of the world's flake graphite supply – the mined feedstock that is used to manufacture lithium-ion battery anodes – and 100 percent of the world's uncoated spherical graphite supply during 2017.
Moores' primary message to Washington D.C. lawmakers is the U.S. cannot afford to stand on the sidelines when it comes to lithium-ion batteries, and the graphite, lithium, cobalt and nickel that goes into them.
"Those who control these critical raw materials and those who possess the manufacturing and processing know-how, will hold the balance of industrial power in the 21st Century auto and energy storage industries," he wrote.