The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office announced a conditional commitment to lend up to US$107M to Syrah Technologies for its Syrah Vidalia Facility in Louisiana.

The DOE program is in place to boost US production of advanced vehicle technologies but has been dormant for more than a decade.  However, in late March, President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act, intended to give the US Government more avenues to provide support for the mining, processing, and recycling of critical materials. 

The funding would enable Australian company Syrah Technologies to expand its Vidalia Louisiana facility to produce natural graphite-based active anode material (AAM).  The Louisiana plant utilises feedstock from Syrah’s mine in Balama, Mozambique.  In late 2020, Tesla announced an offtake deal with Syrah Vidalia to secure graphite AAM for battery production.

The Biden Administration is eager to ramp up investment in domestic critical materials supply chains and this DOE funding is a clear demonstration of its intentions.  The graphite supply chain is heavily China dominated and this investment would help secure a non-Chinese supply of graphite to key US consumers.