Westwater Resources (WWR) , an energy materials development company, has engaged two expert organizations, Metpro Management and Polaris Laboratories to propel the development of its battery-ready graphite business. These relationships will assist the company’s plan to begin generating revenues in the fourth quarter of 2020. Additionally, once process testing is completed, Westwater should be able to use a greater selection of graphite feedstocks for its planned products.
This supports the goal of a battery-graphite purification and post processing plant in the next 24 months. The relationships enhance development of Westwater’s three graphite products for commercial sales.
Metpro Management will assist in the development of the graphite purification and concentrate enhancement process. Oliver Peters, President of Metpro, has consulted to over two dozen graphite companies including work with the Coosa graphite project’s prior owners. WWR has engaged him to assist in the development of its graphite-purification pilot study with particular emphasis on process metallurgy.
Polaris Laboratories provides all manner of electrical conductivity testing, cell design and product development services to the battery industry working closely with material developers and end use OEM’s. WWR has engaged Polaris as an independent lab to perform critical conductivity testing of its Coosa project materials as part of its customer prequalification program. These independent third-party tests are an important part of gaining customer acceptance and commercialization of WWR’s battery graphite products.
“The development of our pilot plant and production facility are critical path tasks for the Coosa project.” said Christopher Jones, President and CEO of Westwater Resources. “The extensive experience and expertise of Metpro and Polaris are important additions to our technical services base, putting us on plan for production. We have already discussed these relationships with several potential customers, and the response has been more than gratifying – they are as excited as we are.
“Particularly Metpro has a great advantage in that they have already worked at the Coosa property and are very familiar with all aspects of the project. Both Metpro and Polaris are leading experts in graphite materials, with Metpro having extensive purification experience and Polaris focusing on the use of these materials in rechargeable battery electrodes. These capabilities will greatly assist Westwater in our marketing efforts.”
Westwater’s business plan is well served with this additional expertise. Key components of this plan are:
- Development of a battery graphite purification and post-processing pilot plant during 2018 and 2019
- Securing a source of premium graphite concentrate for plant start up and operations until 2026 when the mine is scheduled to be built
- Designing and constructing a graphite purification and post-processing facility based on pilot plant results in 2020.
WWR is developing three battery graphite products for sale to the growing battery sector:
- Purified Micronized Graphite (ULTRA-PMG) conductivity-enhancement products for the lithium-ion, primary-lithium, lead-acid and alkaline battery markets
- Delaminated Expanded Graphite (ULTRA-DEXDG) premium conductivity-enhancement products for the Li-ion, primary-lithium, lead-acid, and alkaline battery markets
- Coated Spherical Purified Graphite (ULTRA-CSPG) premium anode products for the Li-ion battery market.
WWR is working to develop a domestic, made-in-USA battery-graphite business as its first priority, as well as explore for lithium in the western United States. It also holds a portfolio of uranium production and exploration properties in Texas and New Mexico.
WWR’s battery materials projects include the Coosa project, located across 17,000 ha in east-central Alabama, and lithium mineral properties in three prospective lithium brine basins in Nevada and Utah. WWR’s uranium projects are located in Texas and New Mexico. In Texas, the company has two licensed and currently idled uranium processing facilities and approximately 4,400 ha of prospective in-situ recovery uranium projects. In New Mexico, it controls mineral rights encompassing about 76,394 ha in the prolific Grants Mineral Belt, which is one of the largest concentrations of sandstone-hosted uranium deposits in the world. Incorporated in 1977 as Uranium Resources, WWR also owns an extensive uranium information database of historic drill hole logs, assay certificates, maps and technical reports for the Western US.
