In a presentation to a Mining Investment Africa virtual conference last week, Black Rock CEO and Managing Director, John de Vries described the graphite at Mahenge as of superior quality assuring investors of maxim returns for their money.
“The partnership with POSCO validates the credibility of Black Rock’s Mahenge Graphite deposit. It’s real. POSCO has a clear view on electric vehicle battery demand with a significant growth ambition of 20 percent global share of the battery materials sector,” de Vries said in his presentation.
He explained that POSCO’s alignment to Black Rock’s modular growth strategy will enable the ability to secure a best-in-class financing package. De Vries further noted that Mahenge graphite with entry size of less than 85 kilo tons per annum is limited enough to allow product market integration but significant enough to deliver meaningful returns.
“Coarse distribution of Mahenge enables an effective dual project with approximately 60 percent coarse flake for premium large flake markets of limited competition and demanding product of approximately 40 percent medium and fine flake for traditional graphite markets and EV battery usage,” the Blackrock CEO cum MD argued.
On global market trends for graphite, de Vries said about 4.5 million tons of graphite is needed to be produced annually by 2050, or a cumulative of 68 million tons hence demonstrating the critical role graphite plays in the clean energy transition, being used in Li-ion batteries, the most widely projected deployed battery technology.
“Electrification of transport to accelerate graphite demand‒EV battery pack price per kilowatt hour has dropped from U$295 in 2016 to U$137 in 2020; projected to fall to U$94 by 2024 and U$62 by 2030,” he argued adding that global graphite demand is forecast to exceed supply by 2023...read more on https://epaper.ippmedia.com
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