Talga has started trial mining at its Niska South deposit, at the Vittangi graphite project, in Sweden.
Following the successful first phase of trial mining in the fourth quarter of last year, the company is planning to extract the balance of the permitted 25 000 t of graphite ore from Niska South, starting early next month.
The trial mine will operate under the existing permit issued by the Environmental Review Commission within the Norrbotten County Administration Board.
The raw material extracted from the trial mine will provide feed for large scale battery anode sample production, including at Talga’s recently commissioned electric vehicle anode (EVA) plant in Luleå.
“The final phase of Talga’s Niska South trial mine is an important step in establishing our European vertically integrated green anode business, which we believe will become a significant supplier to this key battery and electric vehicle (EV) market. The feedstock from the trial mine will be used for advanced qualification trials at our EVA anode plant with a range of global customers as we scale up towards commercial production in 2024,” said Talga MD Mark Thompson on Tuesday.
The EVA plant is producing Talnode-C anode for ongoing EV lithium-ion battery qualification and customer procurement processes.