New Chinese export restrictions on one of the most critical minerals for the energy transition can spur an effective business response, according to two Western producers of natural graphite.
Customs authorities in Beijing announced that the country will require special export permits for three grades of graphite from 1 December, on grounds of “safeguarding national security interests”.
China produces the vast majority of the world’s natural graphite currently used for anodes in lithium-ion batteries — and was also responsible for almost 70% of the world’s synthetic graphite last year, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
Tirupati Graphite PLC (LON:TGR) is a fully integrated specialist graphite and graphene producer, with operations in Madagascar and India. The Company is delivering on this strategy by being fully integrated from mine to graphene. Its global multi-location operations include primary mining and processing in Madagascar, hi-tech graphite processing in India to produce specialty graphite, and a state-of-art graphene and technology R&D center to be established in India.
