The U.S. Department of Energy announced a $754.9 million loan on Dec. 17 to Australia-based Novonix, to open a synthetic graphite manufacturing facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
“This announcement is the culmination of years of hard work and is another critical milestone for our anode materials business towards our target production of 150,000 [tonnes per annum] in North America,” Novonix CEO Chris Burns said in a statement.
“Recent announcements from China to further scrutinize the export of battery-grade graphite to the United States highlight the importance of domestic production of high-performance, battery-grade synthetic graphite,” he said.
The Chinese regime recently tightened exports of several critical minerals, including graphite, to the United States. The mineral is used in steelmaking, military applications, automotive parts, and lithium-ion batteries….