PERTH (miningweekly.com)  - Commercial-scale milling trials at the Siviour graphite project, in South Australia, have delivered increase spherical graphite yields when compared with the project’s battery anode material study.

ASX-listed Renascor Resources on Monday said that the commercial-scale milling trials had delivered spherical graphite yields of more than 65%, compared with the 50% yield adopted in the battery anode material study.

The company told shareholders that these higher yields from the milling process offer the potential for Renascor to produce more purified spherical graphite (PSG) and improve profit margins as a result of this increased proportion of PSG material being produced per unit of graphite concentrate feed.

“The completion of the downstream equipment trials is another important step in advancing and derisking the Siviour project, with the potential for improved yields offering further upside in our plans to become a global leader in the production of high-quality, sustainable PSG products for lithium-ion battery anode makers worldwide,” said Renascor MD David Christensen.

“We look forward to using data generated from these trials to complete engineering design works and for final equipment selection for our manufacturing facility in South Australia.”

Renascor last August flagged plans to increase production at its battery anode material operation after striking a strategic cooperation agreement and offtake memorandum of understanding (MoU) with South Korean major POSCO.

With the POSCO MoU, the company has now executed and announced offtake MoUs covering up to 60 000 p/a of PSG, compared to Renascor’s current Stage 1 PSG production capacity of approximately 30 000 p/a.

To fulfil the increased offtake volume requirements, Renascor has started feasibility work to facilitate an increase in Stage 1 PSG production capacity and a Stage 2 expansion.