From Alaska to Australia, the prospecting for graphite has added more than 3.7 billion tonnes to the global graphite resource base in recent years.
The European Advanced Carbon and Graphite Materials Association (ECGA) estimates the total contained graphite from identified resources world-wide exceeds 350 million tonnes – or 245 million tonnes of product covering all flake sizes – assuming a mining yield of 70%.
There are a growing number of graphite mines under development across North America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and parts of Europe. Yet China by far remains the largest supplier of natural graphite globally, accounting for about 70% of production.
Brazil, Canada, India, North Korea, Mozambique, and Tanzania collectively make up 30% of the burgeoning graphite market, according to ECGA.
Founded in 1995, the ECGA is the Brussels-based voice of European Union carbon and graphite producers, including the EU-based graphite electrode producers going into Europe’s steel and foundry industry, electrodes and cathodes for the aluminium and ferroalloy industry, as well as for specialty graphite and carbon products.
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence forecasts demand for natural graphite will surge 140% by 2030, meaning an estimated 30 new natural graphite mines and 12 new synthetic plants will need to come online globally to fill the void.
But from where will these new mines come?
Loosening China’s graphite grip
China dominates the global graphite supply chain, from synthetic and natural graphite production to the refining process. However, there is expected to be strong competition for market share between synthetic and natural graphite as demand continues to soar.
Natural graphite production is projected to grow 6% a year to reach 1.5 million tonnes by 2027, as ex-China mine production comes online. In North America in particular there are a growing number of companies making headway to compete for this market share.
Canadian exploration company E-Power Resources (CSE:EPR) believes its Tetepisca Flake Graphite Project in Québec will have to be one of those aforementioned 30 projects Benchmark estimates will need to come online in the next five years.
After all, E-Power’s stated mission is for ‘graphite now, not 20 years’. As CEO James Cross tells Mining.com.au, the company’s resource target areas on its property are from surface and E-Power is “only interested in easily delineated, and easily mined graphite, suitable for manufacturing needs”.
“Our property is one you can access in a pick-up truck. There are forestry roads all over the property making access easy. This is not a project in the high-Arctic, requiring helicopters for access, or one that is chasing graphite 1,000m below the surface,” Cross explains to this news service.
“We are here to provide solutions now. Only permitting stands in the way, and if the West wants to be competitive, or more importantly, independent, the gloves have to come off.
“The big industrial players who need this graphite, and will have to ultimately own it, can pull those gloves off better and faster than we can.”
As such, E-Power plans on exiting the project prior to production beginning, as revealed by Mining.com.au last week. The likely end users and customers of Tetepisca’s graphite will be defence industry, basic manufacturing, or battery anode makers.
Another North American candidate to fill the void is Graphite One (TSX-V:GPH), which is focused on developing its Graphite Creek Project to production to boost the US graphite supply chain.
The company last week completed its coordinated project plan process following its listing of its Graphite Creek Project in Alaska on the FAST-41 Dashboard. FAST-41 is aimed at improving the timeliness, predictability, and transparency of federal environmental review and authorisation processes for covered infrastructure projects.
CEO Anthony Huston says with US President Donald Trump’s recent critical minerals and Alaska executive orders, “Graphite One is positioned at the leading edge of a domestic critical mineral renaissance that will power transformational applications from energy and transportation to artificial intelligence infrastructure and national defence”.
Graphite One’s US supply chain strategy includes having an integrated business operation to produce lithium-ion battery anode materials and other graphite products for the US domestic market on a commercial scale using primarily natural graphite from Alaska.
“Graphite One is positioned at the leading edge of a domestic critical mineral renaissance that will power transformational applications from energy and transportation to artificial intelligence infrastructure and national defence”
Its project combines the operation of an advanced graphite manufacturing facility to be located in Ohio, with the supply of natural flake graphite from the proposed Graphite Creek mine in Alaska.
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy is even singing Graphite One’s praises. The Governor says the company’s involvement on the FAST-41 Dashboard is “blazing the trail” for projects to contribute to the US economy as well as national security.
“(Graphite Creek) is North America’s largest deposit of natural graphite, foundational to any effort to rebuild our domestic supply chains, and we now have a concrete timeline of 13.5 months for federal agencies to bring it through the permitting process,” Governor Dunleavy says.
Graphite Creek is reportedly the first Alaska-based project to make the dashboard.
Meanwhile, earlier this year iMetal Resources (TSX-V: IMR) completed drilling at the Carheil project, which lies in the Northern Abitibi Greenstone Belt in Québec, targeting three previously encountered graphite horizons. The focus is on defining the extent of the graphite along strike and down dip.
While Carheil is an exploration-stage project with multi-metal potential it has previous graphite results that could help expedite iMetal’s exploration work and the project’s advancement. The project is about 170km north of Rouyn-Noranda in the Northern Abitibi Greenstone Belt.
Effort to eliminate foreign competition
Competition remains fierce and China is fighting to retain its stranglehold on the lucrative sector. And the reason is obvious with the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasting the global graphite market to grow from US$8.32 billion in 2025 to US$13.35 billion ($20.54 billion) by 2032.
Synthetic graphite production in China is now moving to provinces with higher share of hydroelectricity generation, leading to reduced greenhouse gas emissions and improved ESG credentials. Additional capacity in China has increased the supply of synthetic graphite in particular by roughly 40% since 2023.
This increased capacity is expected to lower costs and add to demand for synthetic supply.
The Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) notes that while synthetic graphite has historically been more costly to produce, increased capacity and a shift to cheaper feedstocks is bringing costs closer to that of natural graphite.
“An increased focus on sustainability and lower costs should see synthetic graphite maintain its current market share (around 70% of all graphite produced) over the outlook period,” DISR reports.
Western countries view this oversupply as a tool by China to manipulate the global market. Flooding the market with less expensive, highly subsidised products is seen as a concerted effort to eliminate foreign competition.
This trade practice makes it challenging for graphite producers to secure the investment necessary to bolster production capacity to meet burgeoning domestic demand.
North American Graphite Alliance
As E-Power’s Cross decries to Mining.com.au, it beggars belief Western countries like Australia, Canada, and the US are lagging this far behind to enable China to have such a grip on the market.
“Imagine relying on your competition, or adversaries, to buy your essential critical raw materials to compete with them. As a business model, it does not fly. As a national defence strategy, it is beyond stupid,” Cross says.
The North American Graphite Alliance (NAGA) was formed to combat this very situation. It was established to advocate for the intervention of the US federal government to protect the region’s nascent graphite industry.
It supports the US Department of Commerce’s preliminary determination in July that China is dumping active anode material (AAM) into the American market. The Commerce department’s move marks a change in the North American battery materials landscape and promotes a shift toward domestic sourcing of graphite-based AAM.
In its 17 July 2025 determination, the department imposed preliminary anti-dumping tariffs of 93.5% on imports of Chinese graphite-based active anode material, including AAM within finished lithium-ion batteries.
The effective tariff rate for AAM is now 160% when added to countervailing duty tariffs of 11.5% placed by the department in May, US President Donald Trump’s blanket 30% tariff on goods from China, and 25% Section 301 tariffs implemented by United States Trade Representative (USTR) in 2024.
The US Department of Commerce states that the value of AAM imports from China amounted to US$350 million in 2023 and US$380 million in 2022. It identified a number of Chinese firms subject to the preliminary 93.5% duties, while others that were not specifically listed and not able to demonstrate independence from the Chinese Government, will face even higher rates of 102.72%.
Commenting on the recent developments, Northern Graphite Corporation (TSX-V:NGC) says the measures are almost immediately effective. Being retroactive, it means importers must post large cash deposits on recent and future shipments.
CEO Hugues Jacquemin says these moves strongly favour domestic sourcing and represent a historic opportunity for companies like his Northern Graphite, which is touted as the only flake graphite producer in North America.
With plans to build one of the region’s largest AAM plants in Baie-Comeau, Québec, Jacquemin says Northern Graphite is well positioned to support a secure and sustainable graphite supply chain for North America as the market continues to develop.
Few survivors, growing dilemmas
As E-Power’s Cross explains to this news service, in North America, there are only a few significant surviving graphite players and his company is one. A lot more supply is needed than what currently exists, so the region barely competes with each other.
“At the same time, we have been careful not to follow the business model of some other players in the North American graphite space who have drifted downstream in the supply chain, thereby seriously complicating their business plans,” the CEO adds.
Cross says the complications have mostly been around going into manufacturing, specifically manufacturing of battery anode material. In most cases those plans for manufacturing have advanced much faster than their mineral properties, which is likely to, ironically, cause them to have to venture to the Chinese graphite market to search for supply, in order to compete with China.
“At least one player has leveraged its assets much too early, which is going to be a problem, while another has prematurely signed an offtake agreement with a Chinese company, in exchange for virtually nothing,” Cross continues.
“We are here simply to deliver Western industry an essential link in their supply chain, rather than to build an integrated and complicated business to compete with Chinese cost structures”
“We have kept our company debt-free and as clean, simple and unencumbered as possible. We are here simply to deliver Western industry an essential link in their supply chain, rather than to build an integrated and complicated business to compete with Chinese cost structures.
“As there are only a few upstream graphite projects in North America of any significance, our exploration work is all about moving up in the rankings of that very short list. In North American graphite, it is no longer much about project economics to compete with China, but about having an insurance policy to guard against losing the entire manufacturing base.
“Graphite in the ground is that insurance policy and there is no substitute. The economics that should be applied are the economics of not having it.”
No substitute for essential ingredient
The European Advanced Carbon and Graphite Materials Association (ECGA) says graphite is one of the most interesting elements found on the Earth. It is found naturally in its mineral form, as well as produced in synthetic processes.
The earliest use of graphite dates back to primitive ages, when it was used to draw on cave walls. It was also used by Egyptians to decorate pottery. During the Middle Ages, graphite was used as a refractory to line moulds for making smoother cannon balls that could be fired farther.
In modern times, graphite has traditionally been used in lubricants and steelmaking but is becoming increasingly important due to its use in battery anodes. It can be mined (natural or flake graphite) or produced by boiling and subsequently calcining green petroleum coke (synthetic graphite).
Typically, natural graphite is less energy- and emissions-intensive than synthetic graphite, due to the high temperatures needed for synthetic graphite production.
E-Power CEO James Cross says graphite has exceptional properties. The three most important are extreme heat resistance, exceptional conductivity, and its ability to act as a lubricant.
“In lithium-ion batteries, graphite forms almost the entire anode side of the battery. It is the largest material component of a battery. No graphite equals no battery. There is no substitute,” the CEO adds.
“In lithium-ion batteries, graphite forms almost the entire anode side of the battery. It is the largest material component of a battery. No graphite equals no battery. There is no substitute”
“This is not just about EVs, but also about batteries used for any purpose, including power generation, drones, appliances, or anything requiring power.
“Growth in the number of batteries for all purposes is probably the biggest driver of global demand, but in the West, defence is going to be a huge driver as well, especially after the West re-arms after expending so much in Ukraine.”
Graphite is an essential ingredient in a lot of materials and has many more applications. As Cross explains, “without it, you do not have ammunition, artillery, fighter aircraft, ships, submarines, drones, tanks”, among others.
Without graphite, the defence industry grinds to a halt. It represents a small fraction of the cost of manufactured items employing it, but is absolutely essential, Cross continues.
“As an analogy, it is what salt is to a restaurant. You must have it, but it represents a very small amount of your total costs of production,” the CEO adds.
“You do not really care much about what you pay for it, but care very much that you can find it, and are not reliant on a competing restaurant for it. Remember the restaurant buying salt?”
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: ECGA, E-Power & NAGA
