Battery anode and advanced materials company Talga Group has commenced trial mining at its 100% owned Vittangi graphite project in north Sweden.
The Perth-based company said the 2021 trial mining campaign is extracting an approximate 2,500-tonne sample of natural graphite, an EU defined ‘critical mineral’, from the Niska South deposit of Vittangi.
According to Talga’s statement, the raw ore will be processed and refined into the company’s flagship Li-ion battery anode product Talnode-C, for large-scale qualification trials in EV batteries.
Talga Managing Director, Mark Thompson, said the anode product produced from this campaign would be the first large-scale use of natural graphite from the Niska part of Vittangi since successful metallurgical testing of the drill core for the Niska Scoping Study.
“We are excited to start this trial graphite mine at Niska South to supply critical natural graphite for our downstream refining into greener Li-ion battery anodes for electric vehicles,” Mr Thompson said.
“Additionally, seeing such shallow and high grade mineralisation extending from our drilling and deposits up to 3km away demonstrates the consistency of this world-class graphite supply for more sustainable battery manufacturing within Europe.”
