Magnis Energy Technologies Ltd. announced its plans to establish a Lithium-ion battery Anode Active Material (AAM) manufacturing plant utilising high quality and high purity natural graphite feedstock from its wholly owned Nachu graphite project in Tanzania. This downstream AAM production facility will deliver a secured supply of one of the most sustainable, cost-competitive, high-quality, and high-performance Coated Spherical Graphite (CSPG) anode products in the marketplace for the ever-growing US and European Lithium-ion battery market. The proposed AAM processing facility will strengthen Magnis' vision of vertically integrating its strategic assets across the lithium-ion battery value chain, as well as meeting the growing supply deficit of critical materials for the broader Lithium-ion battery market.

Several locations within the United States are currently being investigated. Currently, Magnis is in advanced discussions with several potential offtake partners to produce and supply AAM. Magnis has plans for the phased production of AAM, commencing with the operations of a demonstration plant followed by setting up a large-scale CSPG AAM production facility in the US in the next 3 to 5 years.

The demonstration plant aims to supply the AAM for the qualification process with the OEMs and Lithium battery cell manufacturers. Magnis' recent successful completion of the bankable feasibility study (BFS) update confirmed the viability of the Nachu Graphite Project in Tanzania to produce and supply high-purity graphite anode feedstock at a commercial scale for the rapidly growing Lithium-ion battery market. Magnis has continuously demonstrated the production of a high performance, commercial Lithium-ion battery grade (>99.95%) CSPG-based AAM from its Nachu graphite feedstock in Tanzania with the help of its strategic technology partner, C4V.

C4V and Magnis have developed a proprietary graphite anode processing technology at its pilot facility located at the Binghamton University in New York operating over the last six years using lab scale equipment. C4V's innovative and scalable processing technology which utilizes a purely mechanical downstream processing approach has eliminated the need of any harsh chemical and thermal purification producing significantly low-energy and low-carbon footprint anode product compared to traditionally produced products. At the pilot facility, product has been constantly produced with higher yield (~70%) compared to the conventional graphite anode plant yield (~40-50%).

Magnis' CSPG AAM produced at C4V's pilot facility has been validated in commercial graded cells by C4V and Magnis' subsidiary Imperium 3 New York (iM3NY), which recently commenced the commercial production of Lithium-ion battery cells at its Gigafactory facility in New York. 2 Magnis has an exclusive licensing agreement with C4V to use and commercialize the AAM processing technology globally. The demonstration plant will validate and demonstrate the scalability of Magnis' AAM processing technology at a commercial scale and will further facilitate the expansion to a large-scale production capacity.

Recent electrochemical battery performance of Nachu AAM has been extensively tested, validated and qualified using commercial graded Lithium-ion battery cells. These commercial graded cells have had over 1000 cycles while retaining over 90% of its initial cell capacity which demonstrated an excellent lifespan of the Nachu CSPG AAM and its readiness for the next step of commercialisation.