The U.S. Department of Defense has teamed with South Star Battery Metals Corporation, a company that manages several graphite mining projects.
Funds provided through the $3.2 million agreement will support South Star’s production of Coated, Spheronized, Purified Graphite, or CSPG, at their Coosa County, Alabama-located BamaStar Graphite Project, the DOD said on Wednesday.
“As one of our first awards to a Canadian company in the battery materials sector, this award exemplifies our combined commitment to strengthening our battery material supply chains and global approach to industrial base resilience,” said Laura Tayor-Kale, assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy.
The agreement was made under the Defense Production Act Title III program, which aims to build, defend and revitalize necessary industrial base capabilities. Taylor-Kale called the investment, which also used funds appropriated by the Inflation Reduction Act, “another example of the critical importance” of DPA investment authorities.
Under the agreement, South Star will conduct a bankable feasibility study assessing all stages of the process, beginning with mining and ending with production of CSPG. The company will consider economic and environmental, social and governance criteria during the study.
Once the study is complete, South Star intends to build a downstream battery-grade processing facility in the southeast U.S. The new installation would convert concentrates from the BamaStar mine location into CSPG to be used as raw materials for domestic lithium-ion battery anode production.
This agreement is one of 23 awards made through the DPA Investment Program, which has issued $717.5 million in total funds.
Learn more about how the DOD is investing in the production of advanced technologies at the Potomac Officers Club’s 10th Annual Defense R&D Summit on Jan. 31, 2024. To learn more and register to attend the event, click here.