The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - January 31, 2025
Core from drilling through a high-grade lens at the Graphite Creek, home to the largest known deposit of graphite in the United States.
Lucid Motors has struck a deal to purchase Graphite One anode material for the batteries going into its award-winning electric vehicles.
Anthony Huston
Mike Dunleavy
Graphite One Inc. on Jan. 30 said the inclusion of Graphite Creek in Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy's 2025 State of the State Address underscores the importance of its efforts to establish an all-American graphite supply chain. This network includes links in Alaska, Ohio, and Arizona, ultimately leading to electric vehicles with Alaska-mined graphite in their batteries parked in garages across the nation.
Anthony Huston
"All of us at Graphite One are gratified by the support Governor Dunleavy continues to show for our project," said Graphite One CEO Anthony Huston. "He sees the strategy we are pursuing to break the U.S.'s 100% dependency on foreign-sourced graphite as key to the kind of Critical Mineral projects that will demonstrate Alaska's role as an essential U.S. source of the metals and minerals transforming the 21st Century."
During his Jan. 28 address to Alaska legislators, Gov. Dunleavy pointed to Graphite One as a leading example of the next generation of mining projects in Alaska.
"The Graphite One deposit, the largest in North America, north of Nome, continues to move ahead with support from a Defense Department grant," he said. "Construction could begin in that project by 2027 and the mine could be producing as early as 2029."
The timeline mentioned by the governor will require efficient permitting at both the state and federal levels.
President Donald Trump addressed the long federal permitting process in the "Unleashing American Energy" executive order he signed on his first day back in the Oval Office.
In the executive order, Trump instructs all relevant federal agencies to "undertake all available efforts to eliminate all delays within their respective permitting processes."
The executive order places special emphasis on projects essential to the U.S. economy or security, which would likely encompass most critical mineral mines and processing facilities.
"For any project an agency head deems essential for the Nation's economy or national security, agencies shall use all possible authorities, including emergency authorities, to expedite the adjudication of Federal permits," the executive order reads.
Gov. Dunleavy says Alaska needs to have policies in place to show that America's Last Frontier is "Open for Business" and attracts investments in its abundant resources.
"We have the resources. We have the location on the globe, but we need the policies to give us the edge as an investment destination for private capital," the Alaska governor said. "To this end, the executive branch will be continually reviewing our permitting and regulatory processes to find efficiencies and remove barriers to investment and opportunities."
For Graphite One, the efforts to streamline federal and state permitting could not be better timed.
The U.S. Department of Defense funding mentioned by Dunleavy was a $37.5 million grant aimed at accelerating the completion of a feasibility study that details the economic and engineering parameters of developing a graphite mine in Alaska and a processing facility in Ohio.
Upon completion of this study, Graphite One will be positioned to initiate permitting for a mine at Graphite Creek, expected to produce 183,000 metric tons of graphite concentrate per year and a graphite processing and battery materials recycling facility in Ohio.
Lucid Motors has struck a deal to purchase Graphite One anode material for the batteries going into its award-winning electric vehicles.
The company is well-positioned to begin forging the links of an all-American graphite supply chain once the permitting processes are complete.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) has extended an offer to loan Graphite One $325 million to build the processing and recycling plant in Ohio, and Lucid Motor has entered into a preliminary agreement to buy advanced anode material produced at that plant for the prestigious and award-winning EVs it is producing at its manufacturing plant in Arizona.
"Through work with partners like Graphite One, we will have access to American-sourced critical raw materials, helping power our award-winning vehicles made with pride in Arizona," Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson said upon unveiling the future purchase agreement.
American-made EVs powered by American-made batteries with Alaska-mined graphite fit well with the White House policy direction outlined in the executive orders signed by President Trump on Jan. 20.
Mike Dunleavy
The long list of executive orders signed by Trump on his first day back in office included "Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential," an unprecedented order that singled out Alaska's "abundant and largely untapped supply of natural resources."
"As governor, I couldn't be more excited about the next four years, under the most pro-Alaska president we've ever had," Dunleavy said during his State of the State Address. "President Trump singled out Alaska out of all the 50 states for its own series of Executive Orders. This is unprecedented – and demonstrates his view of the importance of Alaska as a solution to America's energy, manufacturing, and national security issues."
And the governor's State of the State Address indicates that Graphite One is an important facet of the Alaska solution.
"The bottom line is that in a world that needs graphite, America needs Graphite One," said Huston.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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