Countdown to Graphite One

Restoring the US supply of a critical mineral

By Amy Newman

The Kigluaik Mountains stretch 42 miles east to west along the Seward Peninsula just north of Nome. Grizzly bears and moose roam the area, its lakes are home to a unique subspecies of Arctic char, and it’s the site of the Grand Union Glacier, the only active glacier in Western Alaska.

The mountains are also home to Graphite Creek, site of the largest known flake graphite deposit in the United States. Located 37 miles outside of Nome and 3 miles inland from Windy Cove, the deposit contains more than 8 million tonnes of graphite, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) US Mineral Deposit Database.

Vancouver, Canada-based tech company Graphite One hopes to make that deposit the linchpin of a threepronged project that will increase the North American supply of graphite and reduce US dependence on foreign sources of the mineral.

“Our goal is to create the first dominant [graphite] supply chain in the history of the United States,” Graphite One founder and CEO Anthony Huston said of the company’s plans in 2020.

Graphite One isn’t the first company to extract graphite from the hills of Nome, though it is the most ambitious.

At the start of the 20th century, Minnesota couple Nicholas and Evinda Tweet came to Nome in search of gold, Huston says. They formed N.B. Tweet & Sons and acquired 176 mining claims spread across 23,680 acres. During the first and second World Wars, the company turned its attention to extracting graphite, which it sold to steel manufacturers in Seattle and San Francisco to aid the war effort.

Huston learned of the graphite deposit in 2012 and obtained permission from the Tweets’ descendants to extract and test graphite from their claims to determine whether it could be used to produce lithium-ion batteries. After tests confirmed it could, Graphite One purchased 163 of the Tweets’ original claims and leased the remaining 13.

Since then, the company has worked steadily to get the Graphite Creek project online and, despite some COVID-19 related setbacks, is on track for first production to begin in 2028.

Domestic Supply of a Critical Mineral

A naturally occurring form of crystalline carbon, graphite is soft and easily split, yet extremely heat resistant and nearly chemically inert. These properties suit a variety of practical, everyday uses. Graphite is a vital component in batteries that power laptop computers, LEDs, smartphones, and electric vehicles, as well as being used to make solar cells and nuclear reactors. Because of its versatility, it is consistently included on the USGS’ annual list of minerals critical to the US economy and national security.

Despite its critical status, graphite has not been produced in the United States since the ‘50s, according to the USGS, and the country’s last known graphite mine, located in Montana and operated by United Minerals, closed in 1990. This makes the United States 100 percent dependent on foreign sources to meet its graphite needs. In 2021, the USGS reports that the United States imported 53 tonnes of graphite, primarily from Canada, Mexico, and China.

Graphite One plans to reduce that foreign dependence with a vertically integrated operation that will mine, refine, and recycle high-grade anode materials and provide the United States a domestic source of this critical mineral.

“Graphite One is anchored by our Graphite Creek project, but we are more than just a mine,” Huston says. “We know we have to build out a full domestic advanced graphite supply chain. It’s a full circular economy approach. Nothing less than that will get the United States back in the graphite game, at a time that graphite is key to so many high-tech transitions.”

The approach begins with the Graphite Creek mine, planned as a one-mile long, half-mile wide open pit up to 1,000 feet deep. The yearround truck and shovel operation is expected to mine four million tonnes of graphite annually, with one million tonnes delivered to the adjacent processing plant. From there, graphite mineralization will yield 60 thousand tonnes of graphite concentrate, which will be shipped from Nome to Graphite One’s manufacturing plant in Washington.

The Washington plant will pelletize and thermally purify the graphite to a minimum concentration of 99.9 percent. It will then be air-milled, turned into spheroid particles, and coated and graphitized. The process is expected to yield 41,850 tonnes of battery-grade coated spherical graphite, which can be used in electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries, and 13,500 tonnes of advanced graphite materials, which can be used in energy storage systems and a range of manufacturing supply chains.

“Graphite One anticipates that the electric vehicle and energy storage