Canadian junior Graphite One (TSX鈥怴: GPH) has from a new feasibility study on its Graphite Creek聽project聽in Alaska, revealing a threefold increase in projected production compared to earlier estimates.
The critical minerals聽explorer聽and developer said it plans to file the full study in April and will now move into the permitting phase.聽
The announcement comes on the heels of an聽 signed by President Donald Trump聽aimed at reducing the country鈥檚 heavy reliance on mineral imports.
Chief executive Anthony Huston credited grant support under the聽United States鈥� Defense聽Production Act (DPA) for accelerating the feasibility study by 15 months and enabling an expanded聽drilling聽program.
According to the new results, the Graphite Creek project near Alaska鈥檚 west coast hosts 3.72 million tonnes of graphite in 71.2 million tonnes of proven and probable reserves averaging 5.2% graphite. This would allow the mine to produce 175,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate annually for more than two decades.
鈥淲ith these new results, Graphite Creek is now triple the size when the US Geological Survey that Graphite Creek was the largest flake graphite deposit in the US,鈥� Huston said.
Even before Trump returned to the Oval Office with a pledge to strengthen domestic critical mineral production 鈥攑articularly in Alaska鈥� Graphite One had already secured federal backing for its plan to develop a complete mine-to-electric vehicle (EV) graphite supply chain in the US.
The ore mined in western Alaska will be shipped to a processing and recycling plant the company is building in Ohio, where it will be refined into battery-grade anode material and other advanced graphite products.
To complete the supply chain, Graphite One secured last year a deal with electric car maker Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) to provide it with graphite anode material for the batteries going into its EVs.