Evolution’s commitment to USA focused downstream strategy

Evolution Energy Minerals (“Evolution” or the “Company”) (ASX: EV1, FSE: P77) is pleased to provide an update on its downstream processing strategy to produce coated spherical purified graphite (“CSPG”) in the USA.

The US Department of Energy (“DOE”) forecasts the US will reach 796GWh of battery capacity by 2026¹, which will require 700,000 tonnes per year of active anode materials. This demand requirement, together with the various policy initiatives to incentivise the supply of critical minerals into the US market and the manufacture of battery anode materials, makes the US an ideal location to establish Evolution’s downstream facility for processing Chilalo fine flake graphite.

The US designated graphite as a strategic critical mineral. The combination ofstrategic importance of graphite and the US Government’s commitment to both securing the supply of strategic critical minerals and developing domestic anode manufacturing capacity, presents Evolution with an exceptional opportunity for vertical integration. Evolution’s Chilalo Graphite Project in Tanzania will provide the feedstock for the downstream operations, and the US facility will use environmentally sustainable processes to produce graphite for US markets.

Evolution’s Managing Director, Phil Hoskins, commented: “We have already confirmed the superior performance of Chilalo fine flake graphite for the production of CSPG and committing to a downstream processing strategy is the obvious next step. The US has numerous states with low cost renewable power grids ideally suited to environmentally friendly thermal purification of graphite as well as a favourable political environment for new critical mineral processing.

“Establishing ex-China mine-to-anode supply, as with other critical minerals, is one of the most compelling market opportunities in the critical minerals space right now, evidenced by the extensive range of Government range of policy initiatives.

“Whilst Chilalo’s fine flake graphite is keenly sought after by offtakers, we are firmly focused on establishing a vertically integrated business in which our Chilalo Project supplies fine flake graphite to an Evolution processing facility in the US. Not only does this provide a compelling opportunity for value addition, but it provides other potential sources of funding for Chilalo itself.”

¹Source: Benchmark Minerals Intelligence Battery Megafactory Assessment, March 2023

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