Kingsland Minerals (ASX:KNG) will supply Quinbrook with diamond drill core samples from Leliyn in a bid to capture opportunities in the US$19 billion lithium-ion battery anode market.
The testing will be conducted in parallel with pre-feasibility study activities, which are underway after a green light from the KNG board.
As part of the PFS, KNG will carry out drilling to upgrade Leliyn’s inferred resource to the indicated and measured JORC categories, targeting 60-70 million tonnes of the existing 192.5Mt at 7.3% total graphitic carbon resource.
The company is looking to upgrade its resource – one of the largest undeveloped graphite deposits in Australia – down to at least 120m below surface.
Kingsland has a binding offtake agreement with Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, covering graphite concentrate produced from Leliyn for processing into value-added products at a facility in Darwin.
Quinbrook’s upcoming round of testing will determine whether feedstock from Leliyn is suitable for processing into spherical graphite, a key component in battery anodes and which is processed from high-grade flake graphite of suitable size.
Graphite tends to make up about 30% of an EV battery by weight, often requiring about 70kg of material per unit.
Fastmarkets predicts demand for battery-grade graphite in the US will surge 600% to almost 70,000t by 2034, driven by rising demand for electric vehicle batteries and China’s curbs on critical mineral exports.
China accounts for as much as 95% of global anode output and is projected to supply roughly 80% of the world’s battery-grade graphite by 2035.
As sovereign supply of critical minerals becomes an increasingly important strategic priority, ex-China sources of high-grade graphite are likely to be in high demand.
