Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has inspected International Graphite's Collie processing and research and development facility, in Western Australia.

The Collie facility, located 200 km south of Perth, is Australia's first downstream graphite pilot and product qualification plant. It plays a key role in International Graphite’s mine-to-market strategy, which includes downstream processing at Collie and the development of one of the country's largest graphite resources at Springdale in Western Australia.

International Graphite has secured A$13.2-million in funding from the Australian and Western Australian governments for its role in building the nation’s battery minerals capability and supporting Collie’s economic transition.

Albanese was joined by federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen, Assistant Minister Josh Wilson, Western Australia Minister for Energy, Environment, and Climate Change Reece Whitby, and Collie-Preston Member of the Legislative Assembly Jodie Hanns.

International Graphite chairperson Phil Hearse said that hosting the Prime Minister and Ministers at Collie was a great privilege and illustrated the commitment and interest the government was bringing to the industry.

Hearse noted increasing demand for Australian products, particularly in allied markets such as the US, Europe, Japan, and Korea.

The Collie facility houses pilot-scale graphite micronising and spheroidising equipment, along with a qualification-scale micronising plant producing product for customer acceptance testing. Sample graphite products are currently being shipped to potential customers in the battery materials, defence, plastics, lubricants, and aerospace industries worldwide.

Since its commissioning earlier this year, the Collie facility has completed 2 000 person-hours without any lost-time incidents.

The expanded plant will process graphite from International Graphite’s 100%-owned Springdale graphite project, creating one of the first fully integrated mine-to-market graphite operations in the Western world. The company also plans to develop one of Australia’s first anode production facilities for the lithium-ion battery industry.

In addition to its use in lithium-ion battery anodes and as a critical conductive additive in battery cathodes, micronised graphite has applications across various industries, including defence, electronics, plastics, ceramics, refractory items, adhesives, and lubricants.