Aim-listed Sovereign Metals announces that a bulk sampling programme to extract over 100 t of ore from the Kasiya project, in Malawi, is under way, to produce over 1 000 kg of natural graphite for lithium-ion battery anode test work and product qualification.

The bulk sampling programme is part of the company’s graphite bulk sample programme for qualification, downstream test work and product development.

A major component to graphite sales agreements is customer qualification with graphite produced from this programme to be shared with prospective end-users in addition to being used for upscaled downstream test work, Sovereign explains.

Previous test work confirmed Kasiya’s graphite would have near-perfect crystallinity and a high purity – both key attributes for suitability in lithium-ion battery feedstock.

The upscaled graphite qualification programme would support upcoming project studies with the company’s strategic partner Rio Tinto.

Sovereign and Rio Tinto have agreed to collaborate to qualify graphite from Kasiya, with a particular focus on supplying the spherical purified graphite segment of the lithium-ion battery anode market.

Sovereign notes that this upscaled graphite programme comes as China implements curbs on exports of natural graphite under ‘national security’ concerns.

Sovereign posits that Kasiya is one of the world’s largest natural graphite deposits outside of China and that it has the potential to become a key source of strategic supply to the US, the UK, the European Union, Japan and South Korea.

Kasiya’s recent prefeasibility study confirmed it could be one of the world’s largest natural graphite producers at 244 000 t/y, with the lowest cash operating costs globally at $404/t and the lowest carbon dioxide footprint, Sovereign avers.

Citing Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, Sovereign notes that China currently produces 61% of all flake graphite used in the production of lithium-ion battery anodes and accounts for 93% of all graphite anode production globally.