Accommodation site selected as Renascor continues to advance major ex-China graphite operation

• Renascor signs option agreement for accommodation site in Cleve to support Siviour graphite mine
• South Australian mine to be part of integrated project seeking to break China’s hold on the graphite market 
• Key tenure requirements now complete to enable design work and future development across mine, accommodation site and Bolivar battery anode materials plant

Special Report: A company looking to break China’s hold on the supply chain for key battery metal graphite has secured what it says is the final tenure requirement for its integrated mine to anode material project in South Australia.

Renascor Resources (ASX:RNU) announced a three-year option agreement with a local farming operator to secure an accommodation site in the community of Cleve to support the future construction and mining workforce for its Siviour graphite mine.

Avoiding significant upfront capital costs under terms the company said would not be expected to be material to its share price, the accommodation will provide the company’s staff living arrangements in a well-serviced community just 30km from its Siviour mine on the Eyre Peninsula.

RNU has already undertaken stakeholder engagement and preliminary site investigations to support the submission this quarter of a development application to construct its accommodation facility.

Design is advancing to enable early procurement activities for modular accommodation units.

It’s the latest in a string of development wins for Renascor, which include the acquisition of the land under which the Siviour deposit sits and the conditional approval of its full-scale commercial purified spherical graphite plant in Bolivar.

“This option marks a significant milestone for the BAM Project by finalising our land position for the upstream mining operation and ensuring we have the infrastructure in place to support both construction and long-term operations,” Renascor MD David Christensen said. 

“In addition to offering a practical, strategic solution to our accommodation needs, the Option Agreement further advances our strategy of completing key long-lead procurement and site activities to reduce project delivery risk and enable Siviour to be among the first ex-China graphite projects that will offer secure, long-term supply to meet the needs of western battery and defence supply chains.”

Breaking into the market

Flake graphite is used to make active anode materials for electric vehicle batteries and, despite their name as lithium-ion batteries, is actually the largest mineral component of the end product.

According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, demand for graphite from batteries sourced from both natural and synthetic sources will lift 250% between 2023 and 2025.

But both markets are heavily controlled by China, with the first 65 percentile flake graphite mines occupied solely by China, BMI has assessed.

Renascor’s Siviour looms as a key opportunity for the West to break its reliance on Chinese material, which has helped suppress prices in the low US$400/t range for the graphite product most used as anode materials feed.

But that can’t last forever as demand increases, and Western customers and governments increasingly look for competition from non-Chinese suppliers.

With ministerial approval in hand, a demonstration facility at the site of its PSG plant is set to begin full-scale commissioning in Q4 2025.

Its provisional development authorisation is the primary regulatory requirement for a state of the art, hydrofluoric acid free, manufacturing facility that could eventually produce up to 100,000tpa of PSG for lithium ion battery anodes.

The upstream Siviour mine and concentrator has already been selected as the recipient of a $185m loan under the Australian Government’s Critical Minerals Facility, signalling the nation-building value of the project.

A study showed the mine would run at a rate of 150,000tpa of graphite concentrate capacity for a generational 40-year life, supporting the 100,000tpa capacity of the purified spherical graphite plant once the integrated project is complete.

This article was developed in collaboration with Renascor Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing. 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.