- Black Rock Mining’s (BKT) subsidiary, Faru Graphite, signs an agreement with US-based Urbix to potentially establish a battery supply chain for the US and European markets
- The collaboration will leverage Urbix’s processing techniques with the high-quality graphite from Black Rock’s Mahenge project in Tanzania for the electric vehicle market
- The deal is conditional upon Urbix providing a “substantial” prepayment or equity to secure offtake for Mahenge Module 2, which is the second of four production stages
- BKT shares are up 24.14 per cent to trade at 18 cents at 3:01 pm AEST
A Black Rock Mining (BKT) subsidiary has signed a conditional framework agreement with US-based Urbix for material from Module 2 of the Mahenge graphite project in Tanzania.
The 84-per-cent-owned subsidiary, Faru Graphite, will collaborate with Urbix, a graphite processing technology company, to establish a new supply chain for the US and European battery industries.
The deal will see Urbix offtake 7500 dry metric tonnes (dmt) of -100 natural flake graphite fines from Module 2 in the first year. In year two, it will offtake 10,000 dmt, and for the remaining term, it will purchase 15,000 dmt.
Black Rock expects that after the ramp-up period, it will be able to produce up to 30,000 dmt per annum of the relevant product.
However, the agreement is conditional on Urbix providing a “substantial” prepayment or equity to secure offtake for Mahenge Module 2, which is the second of four production modules.
Urbix CEO Nico Cuevas said he was looking forward to leveraging Urbix’s technology with Black Rock’s high-quality graphite to serve the electric vehicle market.
“Urbix has technically confirmed that the Black Rock graphite resource is of a quality perfectly suited to EV battery supply chains and it is excited to establish these initial steps toward a collaboration with Black Rock and its customers,” Mr Cuevas said.
Meanwhile, Black Rock Mining CEO John de Vries described the agreement as “potentially transformational”.
“Increased geographic diversity of our supply chain allows us to be closer to our customers without the need to directly develop, fund and qualify downstream processing facilities,” Mr de Vries said.
“Importantly, Urbix’s technology will deliver significant environmental and economic benefits deploying our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) footprint across the whole battery anode supply chain, further differentiating our offering from competing brands.”
The companies initially signed a memorandum of understanding in July 2021 to potentially work together to independently supply ESG-friendly anode material to meet the US demand.
Through an assessment of various midstream processing options and proposals, Black Rock identified Urbix’s processing techniques and team expertise as having the best compatibility with the future requirements of Western supply chains.
BKT shares were up 24.14 per cent to trade at 18 cents at 3:01 pm AEST.