Canadian firm South Star Battery Metals Corp. has announced it is earning its way into majority ownership of the Ceylon Graphite Project in Alabama, currently owned by Australian firm Hexagon Energy Materials Limited.
South Star, which also mines graphite in Brazil, has rights now to earn-in up to 75% of the project, subject to regulatory approvals. Hexagon now owns 80% of the project, with a group of individuals owning the remainder.
The project covers 500 acres in Coosa County, where graphite was earlier mined during World Wars I and II.
“The Ceylon Graphite mine historically targeted friable outcropping graphite mineralization, averaging approximately 3-5% graphitic carbon. Mineralization is at surface, and the graphitic host rock was mined historically with shovels and excavators with no drilling and blasting required,” South Star said in announcing the deal.
South Star CEO Richard Pearce said, “We are excited about bringing on the next scalable critical battery metals project in the pipeline in another important jurisdiction for the sector. The approved Infrastructure Bill in the US will provide a lot of opportunities. We will leverage all our technical and commercial experience from Brazilian graphite and move the project forward quickly. The Southeast corridor of the US is transforming itself into an electric vehicle, clean-tech and defense hub, and the project in Coosa County is right in the middle of the action.”
Hexagon’s Managing Director Merrill Gray said, “We are really looking forward to working with the team at South Star under this agreement on the Ceylon Graphite project, including seeing how South Star creates value for our combined shareholder base in practical, on the ground terms.”
Earlier this year, Colorado-based Westwater Resources announced plans for a graphite processing plant in Coosa County. Graphite is a key component in lithium-ion batteries and in other types of batteries.
