Graphite One raises C$2.1M for AK project

Graphite One Resources Inc. May 28 announced that it has raised C$2.1 million, which will help fund exploration and development of its Graphite Creek project north of Nome, Alaska, and for general working capital purposes.

This non-brokered private placement financing involved the issuance of 30.62 million units at C7 cents each. Each unit consists of a Graphite One share and a transferable warrant that entitles the holder to purchase one company share for C12 cents for up to five years, with early expiry conditions.

As a result of this financing, Alaska-based Taiga Mining Company now holds more than 10 percent of Graphite One's outstanding shares and is considered an insider of this company looking to develop a graphite mine in western Alaska and a processing facility that is anticipated to produce 41,850 metric tons of coated spherical graphite used as anode material in the lithium-ion batteries that power the growing number of electric vehicles and other battery powered devices.

In December, Taiga Mining participated in a smaller Graphite One financing and co-owners of the Alaska-based placer mining company, Kevin Greenfield and Jerry Birch, were appointed to the Graphite One advisory board.

"We're excited to get behind the Graphite Creek project," Greenfield said at the time. "We know what it takes to build a successful mining venture, and we see so many strengths in Graphite One."

The inclusion of graphite on the final list of 35 critical minerals published by U.S. Department of Interior on May 18 adds to Graphite One's strengths.

In addition to the growing demand being driven by rechargeable batteries, the U.S. is fully reliant on foreign countries for its supply of this mineral vital to the industrial and defense sectors in the United States.

"The inclusion of graphite on the U.S. Government's Critical Minerals List is a strong signal of the importance of our Graphite Creek project," said Graphite One CEO Anthony Huston. "And from a U.S. national defense standpoint, it's a reminder that our deposit has a history of meeting defense needs, as it was mined as part of the steel-production supply chain during the World War II war effort. Today, it's technology applications that are driving the need for graphite – for high tech, electric vehicles and energy storage, as well as national security applications."

Though Graphite One has only systematically drilled a small section of the near-surface mineralization that extends for some 11 miles across the Graphite Creek property, the Vancouver B.C.-based company has outlined a deposit that could provide a healthy domestic supply of this critical battery ingredient for decades.

A resource estimate calculated early in 2017 outlines 744,000 metric tons of graphite in 10.32 million metric tons of indicated resource grading 7.2 percent graphitic carbon; plus 4.7 million metric tons of graphite in 71.24 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 7 percent for the subsection of Graphite Creek being considered for initial mining.

–SHANE LASLEY