The Alaska Miner Spring 2025 40 Company continues its work to accelerate vital U.S. production On the heels of an executive order signed by President Trump aimed at reducing the United States' heavy reliance on mineral imports, Graphite One Inc. unveils the results of a new reserve estimate that triples the amount of graphite its Alaska mine project can feed into U.S. supply chains. "We will now enter the permitting process with a production rate triple what we projected just over two years ago," said Graphite One CEO Anthony Huston. While the details of the mine Graphite One plans to take into permitting may not be clear until the April publication of a feasibility study (FS), the company has revealed a new reserve estimate that supports the study detailing the engineering and economic parameters of the larger mine at Graphite Creek. According to the new calculation, the Graphite Creek project near Alaska's west coast hosts 3.72 million metric tons of graphite in 71.2 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 5.2% graphite. This triples the overall size of the deposit and the graphite contained within it when compared to a 2022 calculation that supported a prefeasibility study (PFS) providing details of the mine Graphite One had designed for the western Alaska project. "The proven and probable mineral reserve tonnage is 317% of the PFS reserve estimate and the corresponding contained graphite is 296% of the PFS estimate," Huston added. This threefold increase in graphite reserves comes at a time when the U.S. is 100% dependent on imports for this largest ingredient in lithium-ion batteries, with the Trump administration pushing for increased domestic mineral production, and analysts predicting significantly higher demand and prices. "With President Trump's new executive order, G1 is working with Congress, the Administration, and federal agencies to accelerate our Graphite One supply chain project through permitting and into production, to end the nation's 100% import dependency for graphite," said Huston. Even before Trump returned to the Oval Office vowing to bolster the domestic production of critical minerals, especially in Alaska, Graphite One had received federal backing for its plan to establish a complete mine-to-EVs graphite supply chain in the U.S. The first link of this coming supply chain is a mine at Graphite Creek project about 40 miles north of Nome, Alaska. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, this project hosts the largest known graphite deposit in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world. The graphite mined in western Alaska will be shipped to a processing and recycling plant the company is developing at a former national defense critical minerals storage stockpile site in Ohio, where it will be upgraded to battery-grade anode material and other advanced graphite products. To complete the supply chain, Silicon Valley-based automaker Lucid Motors has already entered into a preliminary agreement to buy graphite anode material from the Ohio plant for the batteries going into EVs produced at its Arizona factory. To accelerate efforts to get this supply chain into production, the Pentagon awarded Graphite One a $37.5 million grant to carry out the work needed to get the company to where it is today – a completed FS that can be taken into permitting. "With grant support under the Defense Production Act Title III authorities, Graphite One was able not only to accelerate completion of our feasibility study by 15 months, but also quadrupled our planned drilling program, producing the results we announce today," said Huston. In addition to the DPA Title III grants, Graphite One received an invitation from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) last October to apply for a $325 million loan for building the graphite anode and battery materials processing plant in Ohio. — Shane Lasley, North of 60 Mining News Graphite One triples its projected output forecast
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