Volt Resources Ltd (ASX:VRC, OTC:VLTRF) plans to seek a US$50 million grant from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to help fund its planned 7,500 tonnes per annum natural graphite anode plant in the US.
The critical minerals and battery material company believes that the grant would be a significant catalyst for the development of its downstream graphite business.
A consortium has been created for the purpose with the aim of submitting a concept paper by January 9 and a full application by March 19 next year.
Government funding
Under the US Government’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) Battery Materials Processing and Battery Manufacturing’s Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Number: DE-FOA-0003099, US$7 billion will be made available for the battery supply chain from 2022 through 2026.
The DOE expects to make a total of US$3.5 billion of this funding available for new awards, of which grants of up to $300 million will be awarded for the construction of commercial-scale facilities to produce battery-grade anode materials.
Winners are expected to be announced by August 2024.
Hard at work
Volt has been working on the grant submission since earlier this year and has assembled a consortium of partners, including industrial partners and academic institutions.
To that end, it has a dual sourcing strategy for graphite feedstock, with agreements in place to source graphite from its Zavalievsky Graphite Mine in Ukraine and the Bunyu Graphite Project in Tanzania.
Volt will work exclusively with American Energy Technologies Co (AETC), the only organisation in North America capable of producing commercial quantities of spheroidised surface-coated battery-ready graphite for lithium-ion battery anodes, as a manufacturing technology partner.
Other work streams
The company is in the process of selecting a site for the anode plant in the US Battery Belt in southeast US, with a formal announcement to be made in 2024.
As well, it is in final offtake negotiations with a US-based battery manufacturer for up to 4,000 tonnes per annum of natural graphite anode.
Once signed, this deal will represent more than 50% offtake from Volt's proposed initial annual plant capacity of 7,500 tonnes.
Additionally, two more offtake customers are expected to provide letters of commitment in support of Volt’s application to the DOE.