Graphite One Clears Ohio EPA Hurdle for Battery Plant

Graphite One (G1) (TSXV:GPH,OTCQX:GPHOF) announced it had cleared a regulatory hurdle on Thursday (July 16) as the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency accepted the company’s air permit application for a planned active anode materials facility.

The Ohio EPA determined the permit application is preliminarily and administratively complete, transitioning the Conneaut project into the detailed technical review phase. Securing the air permit is a mandatory precondition for facility construction.

“Acceptance into technical review reflects the quality of the work completed by G1’s engineering and permitting teams,” CEO Mike Schaffner said in the announcement. “We appreciate Ohio EPA’s review and remain focused on advancing the project efficiently toward construction.”

The Conneaut facility is engineered to manufacture synthetic active anode materials. an essential input for lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage.

The development blueprint targets an initial production capacity of 10,000 tons per year starting in the fourth quarter of 2027. The company plans to scale operations to yield 25,000 tons of synthetic graphite and graphitization output annually by the fourth quarter of 2028.

The expedited timeline seeks to address an impending domestic supply deficit. According to projections by S&P Global Mobility, North American graphite demand for battery applications will surge from roughly 56,000 tons in 2023 to more than 620,000 tons by 2030.

Despite graphite constituting up to 95 percent of an electric vehicle battery anode by weight, the US remains 100 percent reliant on imported natural graphite, a supply chain primarily controlled by China.

Graphite One seeks to counter this vulnerability through a vertically integrated and dual-site strategy, enabling the Ohio processing facility to commence commercial operations independently and creating an early path to revenue while the company advances its upstream asset: the Graphite Creek project near Nome, Alaska.

Graphite Creek currently ranks as the largest known natural graphite deposit in the US. Last week, Graphite One confirmed that the US Army Corps of Engineers recommended a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to progress the permitting effort for the Alaskan mine.

Management noted that it has prepared for the EIS review process from the outset and maintains its targeted 2029 commercial startup date for natural graphite extraction at Graphite Creek.

For the Ohio facility, the transition into technical review follows a June milestone where Graphite One secured a design contract with a leading engineering firm to optimize commercial-scale production.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.