Westwater Resources successfully commissions Kellyton qualification line
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Now capable of producing about 1mt per day of battery anode material
Special to the News
Westwater Resources Inc., an energy technology and battery-grade natural graphite company, announced Tuesday that it successfully commissioned the CSPG qualification line at its Kellyton Graphite Processing Plant.
The Kellyton qualification line offers the capability of processing approximately 1 metric ton of CSPG battery anode material each day. The line was completed at the end of 2024 with a successful commissioning trial that produced more than 500kg of CSPG.
Westwater developed and optimized its CSPG products over the past several years using the individual pilot lines at each of its equipment suppliers. Kellyton’s new qualification line involved the installation and consolidation of its equipment supplier pilot line components into one continuous line.
John Strickland, Westwater’s director of operations, commented, “Our new qualification line offers a faster, more cost-effective means of producing multi-ton samples for our cellmaker and OEM customers. We are using this line to produce pre-production samples as we continue efforts to complete our main production line which, once completed, will be capable of producing 12,500 metric tons per year.”
Cevat Er, Westwater’s chief technology officer, added, “The qualification line is a valuable asset for Westwater. It closely resembles our mass production processes and provides a resource for training our operators and perfecting our manufacturing techniques. We will continue to use the qualification line once the main plant is operational as a tool to develop variants of our materials for new customers – all at production scale.”
Further, on Thursday Westwater announced its acknowledgment of an increase in off-take interest.
Yesterday Westwater Resources announced an increase in customer interest relating to off-take supply agreements for its natural graphite battery anode materials.
The global landscape for the U.S. supply of critical materials like natural graphite continues to evolve. One of the key benefits of moving to a domestic supply source for battery grade natural graphite – security of supply – appears to be resonating with U.S. cell makers and electric vehicle OEMs.
Westwater is responding to outreaches from these companies as they weigh the impact of potential changes to the Inflation Reduction Act versus new announcements declaring the importance of U.S.-based critical material supply chains.
Jon Jacobs, Westwater’s chief commercial officer, commented, “The growing risk of increased tariffs on Chinese imports and the potential addition of new tariffs on imports from other countries is accelerating our off-take discussions with new customers. Although the company still has roughly 50% of our expanded Phase II capacity at the Kellyton Plant available, we anticipate that remaining capacity will be sold by the end of this year through one or more off-take agreements that are under review now at several companies.”
About Westwater Resources Inc.
Westwater Resources is an energy technology company that is focused on developing battery-grade natural graphite. Westwater Resources’ primary project is the Kellyton Graphite Processing Plant that is under construction in east-central Alabama.
In addition, Westwater Resource’s Coosa Graphite Deposit is the largest and most advanced natural flake graphite deposit in the contiguous United States and is located across 41,965 acres in Coosa County. For more information, visit westwaterresources.net.
