Yoo Sam (L, front row), head of POSCO International’s green materials department, signs documents with Craig Scherba (R, front row), chief of NextSource, in Antananarivo, the capital city of Madagascar, on Aug. 28, 2023, in this photo provided by POSCO International.
SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — POSCO International Corp. said Monday it has signed two initial agreements with a Canadian and an Australian mining company for the sourcing of a key secondary battery material from Africa.
Under the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Canada’s NextSource Materials Inc., POSCO International will co-invest in Molo graphite mining operated by the Canadian partner in Madagascar, the general trading unit under POSCO Holdings Inc. said in a release.
The initial agreement is expected to help POSCO International secure 30,000 tons of natural graphite, or 15,000 tons of spherical graphite, on an annual basis for 10 years.
The output will be supplied to POSCO Future M Co., the battery materials making arm under steel giant POSCO.
From L to R, Greg Wheeler, chief commercial officer at Black Rock Mining; Alimiya Osman Munge, an executive of Faru Graphite Corp; and Kim Byung-hwi, vice president at POSCO International, pose for photo during a signing ceremony for the partnership on graphite supply, in Dar es Salaam, a coastal city in Tanzania, on Sept. 1, 2023, in this photo provided by POSCO International.
POSCO International signed a separate MOU with Black Rock Mining Ltd., under which it will participate in the Australian miner’s rights offering and explore a potential off-take deal to increase the graphite supply to 60,000 tons a year.
Based on the two deals, POSCO International said it expects to be able to establish annually a stable supply chain for some 90,000 tons of graphite, a key material used to make anodes, one of the four core components in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.
(Yonhap)
