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 [Music] welcome to CEO insights I'm Marilyn Guzman with investing news.com I'm speaking with Andrew warland managing director and CEO of international graphite hi Andrew BR how are you good to see you again good to see you again so first question with the increasing Global demand for uh battery and old materials um how do you see the graphite industry evolving in the next 5 years and what role does the company uh play in that Dynamic well you think there' be a real inflection point coming for the

supply demand fundamentals for graphite um there certainly has been a slight slowdown in the electric vehicle take up over the past 12 months and that's well documented but if you step back and look at the overall trend um with respect to lithium batteries whether it be for EVS but for storage uh the the trend is clear and the demand for graphite is going to be quite substantial over the next 3 to 5 years and so that Supply demand um in ction point that perhaps people thought was going to be 25 26 uh

looks now to be more like 27 28 so the prognosis Still Remains really really strong um and the beauty about us that for international graphite is we've been able to continue the momentum of our projects over the past 12 to 88 months and so when that infliction Point does arrive we'll be poised to bring new production to Market uh right at the time when you expect prices to to adjust one of the I guess more most interesting uh points about the companies you've managed to secure um you know multiple government grants

including a funding for your collie Downstream processing facility so beyond that financial support how do these grants uh impact the growth of the company and you know the trajectory uh positioning yourself in the graphite industry so for us they've been vital because we've been able to position ourselves as a newterm producer through our colly Martinizing facility that we anticipate starting construction of in the next 2 to 3 months um now that'll be a 12 1880 month build and we'll be uh

have our first production towards the end of 2026 um and that is quite a unique opportunity for a for an traditional exploration development Stage Company where you're developing your mind and then you're developing your processing circuits as your mind comes into production so we we've found a way through the government's um assistance to uh to build what will be roundabout to finance around about $6 million investment into our Colley facility and that'll be our first production facility

uh we're also looking further afar we're looking into Europe and potentially some products uh going into Europe as well as into North America where both those jurisdictions are looking to secure um stable Supply from a jurisdiction like Western Australia so um the government side of the business for for graphitees been vital we we've been awarded $17.2 Million worth of government grants over our our life cycle of um the last three or so years and we still have 12.2 million of that funding to draw down um

to develop our projects so for us it's been vital um particularly in this period where Capital markets have been really tough for for all companies um but in particular graphite so you know one of the most recent announcement you've had this uh uh strong purification test Works results from your graphite concentrate so what is the significant maybe talk about the significance of those results and and how it impacts your overall strategy yeah so all of the downstream processing work we've done has been um

incredible productive and supportive of our battery anoid pathway so what it has done is it's validated our our deposit as being completely fit for purpose for the battery ano space um and the battery ano market so the purification test Works have demonstrated we can get to 99.95% which is the minimum battery grade that you need um now that's at a bench scale work and we need to obviously expand that into pilot and qualification scale which we'll do over the next 18 months or so we have about 115 kg of

concentrate from Springdale mine that we've used to do that test work we've done it in Germany and we've done it in Japan and we've also done some um Milling work in our R&D facility in Colley in Western Australia so all of that Downstream work is is validating our the quality of our deposit and it's also validating the processing circuit that we're going to apply to the to the downstream facilities so maybe this is a good time to talk about some of the progress uh you've had with your

projects and some upcoming catalysts that investors should watch for yeah so we're really excited about our facility in collee that we're about to build um we should have the frontend engineering design study published for that over the next 3 to four weeks uh and that will demonstrate we believe that we have a a capability of implementing a 6 to 8,000 ton perom mizing facility in coli and in terms of global um Global ex China producers in that particular space um that that's a really big deal for a

company like International graph that really does put us up you know with some the traditional businesses that have been at this for for many many decades so we're very excited about that um so we'll get the Catalyst of that it's it's essentially funded that project so um we'll be able to confirm the economics around that and and the cash flow projections with this when this frontend engineering design study is published um down in Springdale we are about to embark on a trial mining exercise down

there and generate more concentrate for Downstream test work and follow keep following the feasibility program for Springdale through to its um natural inclusion towards the end of this year and we've always said that we thought we'd have the feasibility in permitting wrapped by the end of this year and that remains our goal uh provider we can just to get the the right amount of funding to complete the that that study with with um at springdell uh on the downstream we're continuing down that

the processing uh processing feasibility work we're working with a marabini under a memoranda understanding um that they've signed with us looking for sparadise product so they're giving us some assistance and in Japan in those markets and we'll continue to work on the our collaborations with our International Partners uh in Europe and North America so we're very excited about the next 12 months we we are doing as I said earlier or alluded to a bit earlier where we're looking at some um

opportunities to develop some processing facilities uh in in the Europe and uh and North America as well um and so we're hoping to get some news into the marketplace over the next 3 to six months on that progress so that should be real genuine Catalyst for us right yeah in terms of market so you've mentioned Europe North America is that are those um sort of the markets that you're looking at for your for your graphite product yeah so so primarily that's the the big gigafactory demand is

coming out of Europe and North America in terms of in terms of non-china demand um so that's where we'll be focusing our attention from a battery anod perspective there's certainly some a lot of the Asian um firms that were to be the tradition traditional buyers of of graphite are developing those facilities in North America and Europe so there sort of there is a a natural collaboration between the European and North American markets and and Korea and Japan in particular so um it's

inevitable that those particular countries will be involved in in the development of our marketing strategy for for our products that's good well thanks again uh Andrew for joining me today and sharing your insights thanks and thanks everyone for watching join us again next time for another edition of coo insights [Music]