Lomiko Metals Inc. announced it has successfully completed Phase 2 of the single-layer pouch cell battery testing of its La Loutre graphite material with Polaris Battery Labs, LLC (?Polaris?). In Phase 1, Polaris completed half-cell coin battery testing, confirming good material electrochemical performance metrics compared to industry standards. In Phase 2, cathode and prepared anode were combined into a single-layer pouch cell format to undergo electrochemical testing to demonstrate technical performance as a full rechargeable battery.

Note that the single-layer pouch cells provide a format that is similar to those used in industry while not requiring large amounts of active material. The coated spherical graphite material (eSPG) provided for the originated from coated purified samples generated by the Corem Innovation Centre in Quebec, Canada. These samples were micronized and spheronized by ProGraphite in Germany.

The samples are deemed representative of the La Loutre deposit. The single-layer pouch cells constructed with graphite anode and standard cathode material demonstrated that graphite performs well under basic test conditions: cSPG16 and cSPG20 samples from La Loutre reveal strong performance of the La Loutre cSPG with better discharging capacity compared to commercial graphite in North America today. Both samples were put through a brief life cycle analysis for 25 cycles at C/2 and performed well.

Concurrent with these studies, Lomiko is also working on the ?NRC Study? announced on July 27, 2023, which aims to advance pre-feasibility level battery trials with its La Loutre natural flake graphite concentrate. Polaris Single Layer Pouch Cell Study: In Phase 2, Polaris constructed single-layer cells using the coated graphite materials paired with a cathode source.

NCM111 was selected for this analysis. Preliminary cycling results indicate consistent performance with internal standard references, showing a relative capacity fade rate over 25 cycles at C/2 of less than 0.1% per cycle. Initial cycling data suggests consistent performance with internal baseline performance metrics for an NCM111 cathode in a single-layer cell using commercially available natural graphite as the anode material.

figure 2 shows a plot of an internal performance reference for an NCM111 vs. natural graphite single-layer cell in comparison to the single-layer cell using graphite batch SPG16. C/20 and C/10 data represent a boost in performance of ~1.5%, ~2.4% at C/5, and ~3.3% at C/2 versus the commercial reference.

Further, SPG16 single-layer cells also demonstrate a lower degree of capacity loss at C-rate switches and more steady capacity at C-rate versus the commercial reference. In conclusion, both SPG16 and SPG20 perform well as compared to commercial graphite reference material for charge and discharge capacities, first cycle loss coulombic efficiency, and gravimetric capacity. With these electrochemical performance results produced by Polaris, Lomiko has now successfully demonstrated the full value chain from ore to battery anode material on samples from the La Loutre project.