Graphite being produced from two deposits in South Korea could be used to ease the country’s dependence on battery materials from neighbouring China, according to a report by Australia-listed Peninsula Mines.
Peninsula has started a “test work programme” for material produced at its Eunha Graphite Project and Gapyeong Graphite Project in South Korea.
The company has appointed Australia’s Independent Metallurgical Operations (IMO) to run the programme testing “high-grade total graphitic carbon” samples from the sites.
If successful, Peninsula said the sites couldgenerate South Korea’s own “value-added” and “high-purity” spherical graphite for domestic lithium-ion battery makers and other graphite products end-users.
According to Peninsula, South Korea, as one of the world’s largest producers of lithium-ion batteries, relies heavily on graphite products, including spherical graphite for Li-ion battery anodes, from China.
Last September, South Korea’s government backed plans by the country’s battery giants to inject a total of KRW2.3 trillion ($2.3 billion) into the sector over the next three years, to expand production and challenge China’s increasing dominance of the market.
BBB reported earlierthis year that Canadian graphite developer DNI Metals had signed a deal with Peninsula, to annually supply 24,000 tonnes of flake graphite, from its projects in Madagascar, to battery makers in South Korea, from the fourth quarter of this year.
