Canadian company NextSource completed its first commercial shipment of coarse flake graphite concentrate from its Molo mine in Madagascar.  

The graphite concentrate was shipped from the Port of Tulear in Madagascar to Germany and the USA under existing offtake agreements. The material will be used for refractories, graphite foils, and fire-retardant applications. The mine began commercial production in August 2024 and is currently being optimised to reach its nameplate capacity of 17ktpy of graphite concentrate.  

NextSource has also been expanding its downstream graphite operations and plans to develop battery active anode material (AAM) facilities in Mauritius and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). These facilities will produce a range of AAMs, including spherical purified graphite (SPG) and coated SPG (CSPG). The company has started to assemble and fabricate process equipment offshore and expects to ship it to Mauritius once its environmental permitting (EIA) application is approved. Meanwhile, strategic partners are still being sought in the KSA following a positive economic study for a battery anode facility (BAF) in the country. Other jurisdictions under consideration for AAM facilities include Madagascar, the UAE, and North America.  

Additionally, NextSource closed a private placement offering of CAD$14.7M (US$10.6M) from Vision Blue Resources in October 2024. The net proceeds of the offering are intended to progress the company’s AAM facilities and be used as CAPEX for phase two expansion plans for the Molo mine, which will have an increased production capacity of 150ktpy of graphite concentrate.  

These initiatives mark concrete steps towards NextSource’s goal of becoming a vertically integrated global supplier of natural graphite for both the steel and battery industries. Although currently small-scale, these efforts for BAM facilities will offer an alternative source of battery-grade graphite to the global market, which is presently dominated by Chinese suppliers.