Graphite One Announces Spherical Graphite Coin Cell Tests as EV Market Growth Accelerates

Graphite One Resources Inc. (TSXV:GPH,OTCQX:GPHOF) announced results from initial performance tests on CR2016 coin cells manufactured with the Company’s premium grade uncoated spheroidized graphite.
As quoted in the press release:

Three of the five coin cells evidenced a first discharge capacity that approached natural graphite’s theoretical maximum with results deviating by less than 1% and one coin cell result equaled it. Discharge capacity is a measure of a battery’s energy storage capability once first charged. The test work is being conducted on the Company’s STAX graphite – the acronym used to describe the graphite that shows naturally occurring Spheroidal, Thin, Aggregate and eXpanded – structures sourced from the Company’s Graphite Creek deposit near Nome, Alaska. There is presently no U.S. production of flake graphite.

• GPH U-SPG Test Results show First Discharge Capacity Approaching Natural Graphite’s Theoretical Maximum Capacity in Three Tests and Equalling it in One.
• Results from Repeat Charge/Discharge cycles at C/20 Rate and Continuous cycling at C/3 Rate confirm High Performance, Repeatability and Stability – All Indicators of High-Quality GPH Graphite
• Potential Answer to Electric Vehicle (EV) Battery End-Users Quest for High-Power Plus High-Energy
• GPH remains on target to complete exploratory grade samples of C-SPG for delivery to potential end-users

At present, EV battery manufacturers offset the lower-performance of natural flake graphite with a composite blend using significant amounts of higher-cost synthetic graphite, which typically accounts for 30% or more of anode material. With improvements in natural graphite quality (Tap Density and Scott Volume, for instance), the ratio of natural graphite in anodes is increasing.

Graphite One CEO, Anthony Huston, stated:

These results support our material having demonstrated superior first discharge capacity for uncoated graphite, while the continuous cycling test shows the potential for our SPG to be used in EV applications. We believe the test results show impressive performance. These properties are inherent to Graphite Creek’s flake graphite. It is important to note that the economics of the project have not been established at any level of confidence through the completion of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA), preliminary feasibility study or feasibility study.
Up to this point, EV battery end-users have had to make a choice between systems that deliver high-power (near 100 kW) and high-energy (tens of kW hours between each charge). Based on these new results and observations made when processing STAX graphite, we will focus our development work on determining whether our STAX-derived SPG can deliver both high-energy and high-power performance. By displacing the need for synthetic graphite, higher-performance natural graphite produced at lower cost could deliver EV battery cost savings, one of the key factors in making EVs more affordable.
The test results provide good indicators for the initial line-of-sight development path for the Company’s graphite, which is to target high-end, high-growth applications, such as electric vehicle (EV) battery materials.