$4.5M Government Grant Secures Construction Start for Collie Micronising

Overview

Vision Blue Resources Ltd, a battery commodity/resource-focused investment company founded by Sir Mick Davis (former CEO of Xstrata Plc), made a significant strategic investment in NextSource Materials in 2021 to fully fund the construction of its Molo graphite mine in Madagascar. Production has begun, with Phase 1 mine operations currently undergoing ramp up to reach its nameplate production capacity of 17,000 tpa of graphite concentrate.

According to UK’s Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, battery demand for flake graphite is expected to grow between 5-7 fold by 2035. This dramatic spike in demand is due to graphite’s critical role as the anode material in lithium-ion batteries. Electric vehicle batteries contain between 60 to 90 kilograms of graphite per battery. By volume, graphite is the largest raw material in a lithium-ion battery. As the electric vehicle market continues to grow, investing in the companies that produce these valuable battery materials and have first-mover advantage can provide significant value-creation and exposure to this expanding market.

NextSource Materials Inc. is a battery materials development company based in Toronto, Canada that is intent on becoming a vertically integrated global supplier of battery materials through the mining and value-added processing of graphite and other minerals.

The Company’s Molo graphite project in Madagascar is one of the largest known and highest-quality graphite resources globally, and the only one with SuperFlake® graphite.

The Company is also developing a significant downstream graphite value-add business through the staged rollout of Battery Anode Facilities capable of large-scale production of coated, spheronized and purified graphite for direct delivery to battery and automotive customers, outside of existing Asian supply chains, in a fully transparent and traceable manner.

Graphite in Madagascar is renowned for its quality and flake size. For almost a century, Madagascar has been exporting flake graphite to the world but in limited quantities. Molo will catapult Madagascar to a top 5 graphite producing country. With its Green Giant vanadium project also within close proximity to the Molo project, NextSource Materials controls two very strategic sources of battery materials at one source.

For further information about NextSource visit our website at www.nextsourcematerials.com or contact us a +1.416.364.4911 or email Brent Nykoliation, Executive Vice President, Corporate Development at brent@nextsourcematerials.com or email Craig Scherba, President and CEO at craig@nextsourcematerials.com.

NextSource’s 100 percent owned and fully permitted Molo graphite project drew investor attention for its large, high-quality flake graphite deposit and unique SuperFlake graphite concentrate. Sir Mick Davis’s strategic investment of US$29.5 million in NextSource in May 2021 provided the entire funding to bring the Molo Graphite mine into production.

“This investment in…