So why waste time with all this “drill, baby, drill” nonsense, Maddocks told Stockhead, when Australia could be a major graphite supplier to the EV and energy storage markets.

“In the last couple of weeks, with all of this Strait of Hormuz stuff, the reaction of a lot of commentators and politicians has been we need to drill more for oil,” he said.

“Why don’t you make more graphite and make batteries. If you have electric cars, you don’t need petrol.”

Kingsland Minerals’ (ASX:KNG) Leliyn Graphite Project in the Northern Territory hosts Australia’s biggest graphite resource of 14.2Mt of contained graphite.

“You have to sell that product to someone to make batteries. Now that’s a hard market to crack into, given the monopoly that China has,” Maddocks said.

“But we’re close to Asian markets – Japan, South Korea are big consumers of graphite,” he explained.

“Even though there’s been a significant uptick of interest in buying electric vehicles, I don’t think that has yet come through to the graphite price and graphite demand.”

Australia ranks 8th globally for economic demonstrated resources of graphite, comprising 4% of the world’s resources.

Benchmark Minerals Intelligence data a couple of years back suggested more than 300 new graphite mines would need to be built by 2035 to meet projected demand.

Supply from Mozambique, Madagascar and Tanzania is coming online, but the warning still holds.

China produces almost three-quarters of the world’s natural graphite and dominates anode manufacturing capacity.

Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners CEO Brian Restall pointed out more than 90% of the material in a lithium battery anode was composed of graphite, which made it an important resource and a unique opportunity for processing in Australia.

Add China’s penchant for export restrictions, special licences and tit-for-tat US trade measures to the mix, that adds up to a critical block on nuclear reactors, aviation and the production of semiconductors as well as EV uptake.

Tests conducted in Germany by ProGraphite last year confirmed Leliyn graphite can be refined into high-grade purified spherical graphite suitable for lithium-ion battery anodes.

Not bad for a first attempt. Quinbrook, Kingsland’s offtake partner and 15.3% stakeholder, is mulling a PSG processing plant next to Darwin’s port.

“If you’ve got low, competitive power costs, you can have a downstream processing industry – graphite and lithium,” Maddocks said.

“You just have to have the will to do it and it costs money to do it … if you’re concerned about supply chains and sovereign risk, well that comes at a cost.”

Kingsland recently determined it could also bolt on gallium as a by-product.

Vital for aerospace, defence and semiconductors, gallium is at the front of the queue for support under Australia’s Critical Minerals Reserve and in the US, with American industry and the Department of War desperate for supplies that don’t come from China.

The scoping study had already confirmed strong economics and low operating costs, as Kingsland advances towards a pre-feasibility study.