The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Critical Minerals Alliances - August 7, 2025
Core from drilling through a high-grade Graphite Creek deposit at the north end of Graphite One's proposed all-American supply chain.
A Lucid Air sedan and Lucid Gravity SUV in Alaska, a state that serves as a cold-weather testing ground for Lucid Motor EVs and a source of graphite for future models.
The "Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential" and "Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production" executive orders signed by President Trump are increasing federal support for Alaska mineral projects like Graphite Creek
The Ohio site selected for Graphite One's processing and recycling plant offers excellent transportation and energy infrastructure.
Civil unrest forced Syrah Resources to declare force majeure for its Balama graphite mine in Mozambique.
Westwater has already invested roughly $120 million into the construction of its graphite anode materials plant in Alabama.
While rare earths, gallium, and lithium grab front-page headlines, graphite – the largest single ingredient in batteries powering electric vehicles and high-tech devices – remains largely absent from the spotlight despite its central role in battery production.
The amount of graphite needed for EVs ranges from around 100 pounds for the lower-cost lithium-iron-phosphate battery (LFP) batteries powering entry-level two-door sedans, such as the Tesla Model S, to more than 500 lb for longer-range nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) packs going into higher-end and larger models like the GMC Hummer EV.
With more than 14 million battery-EVs expected to roll off showroom floors this year, the automotive sector is on the cusp of overtaking the steel industry as the world's single largest graphite consumer.
While EV sales have cooled somewhat, analysts continue to forecast that graphite demand will reach 3.2 million metric tons by 2030, double the 1.6 million metric tons mined globally in 2025, and the International Energy Agency foresees the energy transition pushing that demand as high as 10 million metric tons by 2040.
None of the global graphite supply is currently mined in the U.S. This leaves American automakers and battery manufacturers heavily reliant on China, which produced 78% of all mined graphite and roughly 90% of the world's graphite anode materials in 2024.
The economic and geopolitical risks inherent to this dependence were elevated to a higher echelon when China added graphite to the growing list of critical minerals that require government authorization for export.
This licensing mechanism provides Beijing with a spigot to control how much and where graphite for the batteries powering EVs and grid-scale storage of renewable energy is exported.
Shaky trade relations between the U.S. and China further elevate the supply risks for American battery and EV manufacturers looking to secure supplies of this largely overlooked ingredient of the EV transition.
"North America faces a graphite supply cliff," warned Melissa Chen, a resource security analyst at the Strategic Materials Institute. "Without rapid development of domestic sources, the entire EV transition is at risk of becoming hostage to foreign supply chains."
Thanks to timely backing from the Pentagon, Graphite One Inc. (G1) plans to begin offering U.S. battery and automakers a domestic source of synthetic graphite by 2028 and establish an all-American mine-to-EV battery supply chain by 2031.
This supply chain will begin with a mine at the company's Graphite Creek project in Alaska, extend through an advanced graphite materials processing plant in Ohio, and continue to automakers manufacturing a growing number of EVs traveling American streets and highways.
A Lucid Air sedan and Lucid Gravity SUV in Alaska, a state that serves as a cold-weather testing ground for Lucid Motor EVs and a source of graphite for future models.
These automakers include Silicon Valley-based Lucid Motors, which has already agreed to offtake advanced anode material from Graphite One's emerging supply chain for the batteries powering the award-winning EVs rolling off the assembly line at its Arizona factory.
"A supply chain of critical materials within the United States drives our nation's economy, increases our independence against outside factors or market dynamics, and supports our efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of our vehicles," Lucid Motors interim CEO Marc Winterhoff said upon signing the multi-year agreement with Graphite One.
Establishing a domestic graphite supply chain is also a high priority for the U.S. Department of Defense, which awarded Graphite One a $37.5 million Defense Production Act Title III grant to accelerate the work needed to ready the Graphite Creek mine in Alaska for permitting.
Considering that Graphite Creek hosts the largest known deposit on American soil, developing a mine there that better matches domestic demand was a primary objective of Pentagon officials when they decided to support the project.
Less than two years after the DPA Title III grant was awarded, the company outlined enough graphite at its Alaska project to support a mine capable of producing 175,000 metric tons of graphite annually for 20 years, which is more than three times larger than previously considered by the company.
"We will now enter the permitting process with a production rate triple what we projected just over two years ago," said Graphite One President and CEO Anthony Huston.
The second objective of the Pentagon's investment was to get Graphite One's larger energy minerals project into the permitting process as quickly as possible.
The Ohio site selected for Graphite One's processing and recycling plant offers excellent transportation and energy infrastructure.
This mission was accomplished with the finalization of a feasibility study in April that details the technical and economic parameters for a 100% domestic supply chain capable of producing enough graphite for more than 2 million EVs per year.
The feasibility study envisions a modular design that will allow the Ohio graphite processing plant to be expanded alongside demand. The first two 25,000 metric-ton-per-year modules are currently expected to come online in 2028.
The Graphite Creek mine, which will take longer to permit and develop, is expected to go into production by 2031. The Ohio processing plant is expected to be expanded to its full 175,000 mt/y capacity concurrent with the arrival of the first shipments of Graphite Creek concentrates.
The total price tag to build the all-American supply chain is estimated at $5 billion – $3.9 billion for the processing plant to be built at a former national defense critical minerals stockpile site near Warren, Ohio, and $1.1 billion for the mine about 45 miles north of Nome, Alaska.
Graphite One is entering its all-American graphite supply chain into the federal permitting process at a time when the Trump administration is pushing to establish domestic supplies of minerals and metals critical to the U.S.
In March, Trump signed the "Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production" executive order, which puts the weight of the federal government behind reducing America's heavy reliance on mineral imports.
The "Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential" and "Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production" executive orders signed by President Trump are increasing federal support for Alaska mineral projects like Graphite Creek
"Our national and economic security are now acutely threatened by our reliance upon hostile foreign powers' mineral production," the executive order states.
To allay this threat, the order also calls on federal agencies to leverage FAST-41 to expedite the next generation of critical mineral projects.
FAST-41 was established in 2015 to streamline the permitting process and improve transparency for large infrastructure projects in the U.S.
In 2020, the Biden administration made mining projects that supply the materials needed for energy, communication, and transportation infrastructure in the U.S. eligible for FAST-41.
In his executive order, Trump directed federal agencies to identify and begin adding domestic critical mineral projects to the FAST-41 Permitting Dashboard.
In June, the Graphite Creek mine project in Alaska was accepted for FAST-41 permitting.
"Graphite One's addition to the FAST-41 permitting dashboard is yet another indication that this project is a national priority of strategic importance," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. "There is no question that developing the largest natural graphite deposit in all of North America is far better for our economy, security, and competitiveness than importing the entirety of our supply from unstable nations like Mozambique."
With the acceptance to FAST-41, Graphite One hopes to begin delivering graphite mined in western Alaska into America's automotive and high-tech supply chains in about five years.
"Graphite One is positioned at the leading edge of a domestic critical mineral renaissance that will power transformational applications from energy and transportation to AI infrastructure and national defense," said Huston.
Graphite One's supply chain is also poised to benefit from the financial provisions of Trump's critical minerals executive order, which directs the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM), the Pentagon, the Department of Energy, and other federal agencies to provide loans and other funding assistance to mineral projects across the U.S.
"The new authorities provided via the Defense Production Act, the EXIM Bank, and the FAST-41 transparency-in-permitting process – all of which have recognized the importance of Graphite One's complete supply chain strategy – confirm that G1 is well positioned for this new focus on bringing projects into production," the Graphite One CEO said.
Even if fully realized, Graphite One's 175,000 mt/year output would meet just 25% of the projected U.S. demand by 2034.
Amy Bennett, a principal analyst at Fastmarkets, forecasts a sixfold increase in U.S. graphite demand to 700,000 metric tons by 2034.
"This is a pivotal moment in the U.S. graphite sector, with the U.S. aiming to de-risk from China and become more self-sufficient in the graphite space, particularly for battery-grade materials," she penned in a late-2024 report.
Considering that the adoption of EVs is even stronger in Asia and Europe, the need for graphite mines and processing plants is staggering.
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence estimates that 31 new mines and 12 plants will be needed over the next five years to meet global demand for natural and synthetic graphite.
The world-leading lithium battery and critical minerals supply chain analyst says natural graphite is "one of the largest areas for concern" for the U.S. when it comes to securing the materials needed for EV batteries.
Graphite supply concerns were elevated with the 2024 shutdown of Syrah Resources' Balama mine in Mozambique, the largest graphite mine outside of China.
Civil unrest forced Syrah Resources to declare force majeure for its Balama graphite mine in Mozambique.
The U.S. government had bet heavily on Balama as a friendshoring alternative to China for graphite.
The federal backing of Syrah's graphite supply chain includes a $150 million loan from the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. (DFC) for the Balama mine and roughly $322 million in loan guarantees and grants from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for Vidalia, a graphite anode materials plant Syrah is building in Louisiana to upgrade the graphite shipped from Africa.
Sen. Murkowski has expressed deep concern over the U.S. government's heavy investment in stamping Mozambique graphite as "Made in America" due to it being upgraded to anode material in Louisiana.
Her concerns have proven to be well-founded.
In 2024, Syrah was forced to shut down Balama due to local protests over grievances related to the resettlement of a group of farmers in the area where the mine is located. The intensity of these demonstrations grew with the civil unrest that gripped the nation following the national election in October.
Unable to fulfill its graphite contracts, Syrah declared force majeure for Balama and announced that it would not be able to make payment on more than $250 million in loans that it had received from U.S. government agencies.
As conditions gradually stabilized in the months that followed, Syrah resolved its differences with the resettled farmers, and by May, the newly elected Mozambique government stepped in to remove a small band of protesters from outside the region, clearing the way for crews to inspect Balama in preparation for scaling operations back up at the African graphite mine.
With access restored and assessments complete, the company began ramping up production at Balama in June, and the first bulk shipments of graphite to non-Chinese customers are slated for delivery by September.
Despite the setback, the U.S. government and American automakers remain hopeful that Syrah's Vidalia plant will be able to deliver the graphite anode material needed for EV batteries.
During President Biden's final week in office, the IRS awarded Syrah approximately $165 million in tax credit support for the potential expansion of Vidalia to 45,000 metric tons of anode material per year, four times the Louisiana plant's current capacity.
This federal backing was followed by Lucid Motors entering into a preliminary agreement to acquire Vidalia anode material for the EVs manufactured at its Arizona plant. Tesla also has a contract to source graphite anode material from Vidalia.
While Balama has the potential to help break America's near-total reliance on China for battery-grade graphite, the interruption of production due to civil unrest underscores the need to further diversify supply chains.
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence CEO Andrew Miller noted that "the U.S. needs to grow the supply pipeline itself to truly reduce import dependence" for graphite and other critical minerals.
However, establishing and growing North American sources of a material dominated by China is proving to be difficult.
In May, the U.S. Department of Commerce determined that Chinese producers of anode material are receiving unfair government subsidies and are exporting artificially cheap graphite to the U.S.
As a result, DOC has proposed a 721% tariff on imports to counter this dumping of low-cost materials into U.S. supply chains.
"This important decision by the DOC is another step toward leveling the playing field for U.S. producers," said Westwater Resources Chief Commercial Officer Jon Jacobs.
Westwater has already invested roughly $120 million into the construction of its graphite anode materials plant in Alabama.
Westwater has felt the impact of this suppression as it attempts to secure the financing needed to complete the construction of its Kellyton anode plant and associated Coosa graphite mine project in Alabama.
The company expects the DOC investigation and resulting tariffs on graphite material imports will boost interest in the battery-grade graphite it is endeavoring to mine and refine in Alabama.
"U.S. automaker and cellmaker buyers are increasingly concluding that executing offtake supply agreements with U.S. producers like Westwater is the surest way to avoid import tariffs and is therefore their most economical long-term solution," said Jacobs.
When combined with streamlined permitting and federal financial backing, these tariffs and resulting offtake agreements could help firmly establish a domestic supply chain for the single largest ingredient in the batteries powering EVs and America's high-tech future.
With more than 17 years of covering mining, Shane is renowned for his insights and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration, and technology metals.
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