¶ GRAPHITE testwork program results have provided a boost for International Graphite’s (IG) mine-to-market processing plans.
The program, coordinated by Japan’s Marubeni Corporation, returned battery-grade purification results from concentrates sourced from IG’s Springdale graphite project, near Hopetoun.
IG has been collaborating with Marubeni under a non-binding memorandum of understanding for the potential supply of spheroidised graphite and financial support for its mine-to-market strategy.
Marubeni representatives recently visited the Springdale project and IG’s graphite processing and research and development facility in the Collie Light Industrial Area.
IG managing director and chief executive officer Andrew Worland said partnering with Marubeni provides the fledgling producer further confidence in its development plans.
“Japanese firms have made enormous commitments to developing battery gigafactory capacity worldwide and need new sources of graphite to meet these commitments,” Mr Worland said.
“Marubeni is one of the strategic partners we are engaging with to tailor our future operations to best meet market demands.”
Further testwork programs on Springdale graphite and spheroidised concentrates are planned. 
IG aims to process graphite sourced via its Springdale project in Collie, and is ultimately building towards development of a battery anode material plant in Collie.