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A good Straw offers a clear and concise perspective on the company and its prospects.
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"Batteries Event", gathers all international battery industry players to discuss developments in all aspects of battery and recycling technology. https://batteriesevent.com/
A fantastic forum to further promote EGR's technology and lift the companies profile to International players.
For those interested, a copy of the presentation can be found here.
It provides an excellent overview of how what the company is doing and their "positioning" moving forward. Hopefully management can continue to impress the larger players.
Maybe Andrew Spinks could be considered for a future Strawman meeting
For anyone interested in following this microcap ....... Another interesting announcement yesterday.
In partnership with FYI.AX
- Key Highlights
- Electrochemical performance of the FYI enhanced HPA coated anode in lithium-ion coin cells in excess of 110 continues cycles has achieved near theoretical capacity and outperformed industry standard industry materials
- Testwork demonstrates performance increases achieved from additional concentrations of FYI's HPA combined with EcoGraf’s graphite
- Positive results from the application FYI HPA being applied to the polyolefin separators showing a further improvement of 7.94 mAh/g reversible capacity
- Independent electrochemical testwork underway with partners and battery manufacturers
- Further advanced testwork underway pairing the enhanced HPA anode with HPA coating on polyolefin separator
Read full announcement here:
Just illustrates what's in the pipeline and how they are continuing to position themselves in order to move into the larger EV market. Now just need to line up all the ducks!!
Interesting outlook. Not sure how current climate will generate headwinds. Would be great if they were generating profits. Still like insight & direction, but looks a long term proposition.
https://www.ecograf.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/EcoGraf-Annual-Report-2022.pdf
Following approaches from European & North American EV manufactures, Ecograf intend to ramp up plans for it's BAM facility in WA.
Small steps, but I believe the EGR is flying under the radar. I just seem to like the direction and foresight that management is taking which is going in order to position the company going forward.
Maybe Andrew Spinks might be a worthy candidate for a future Strawman meeting???????
Read full announcement here
Disc. Hold in RL & SM
06-Sep-2022: Hi @Macca571 - I don't follow EcoGraf closely, but I do have an interest due to their agreement with GR Engineering (GNG, who I do hold shares in) to build the graphite processing facility for them in the Rockingham-Kwinana Industrial Zone there in WA (just South of Perth). I think the latest interest has been generated by this news:
Plain Text Link: https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/council-backs-proposed-graphite-processing-facility-for-rockingham-kwinana-industrial-area-c-8002852
Council backs proposed graphite processing facility for Rockingham-Kwinana industrial area
Tyra Peters
Sound Telegraph
Wed, 31 August 2022
The City of Rockingham has endorsed a graphite plant proposal. Credit: Supplied
The City of Rockingham council has endorsed plans for a graphite processing plant in the Rockingham-Kwinana industrial area.
The $50 million development will support the lithium-ion battery manufacturing industry through the establishment of a processing plant that mills high-quality graphite flakes into battery-grade spherical graphite to be used in lithium batteries.
The facility at Lot 2 Zirconia Drive, East Rockingham, will include two main buildings for milling and purification, an administrative building, workshop and store, control room and laboratory, motor control room, 30 car parks in a secure area and three visitor car parks.
The proposed graphite processing plant will operate 24-7 and employ 46 regular staff.
The site will accommodate 16 staff during standard shift operations, with the number increasing to 30 during shift changeovers.
The facility will produce about 20,000 tonnes of purified spherical graphite per annum.
The application was advertised for public comment in February, with residents notified in writing and the application made available on the City’s website.
Two submissions were received that raised concerns over “exposure” to chemicals.
Applicant EcoGraf said “emissions can be considered insignificant and impacts at all nearest sensitive and commercial/industrial receptors is negligible”.
A city report said it was satisfied the location was appropriate.
The application will be brought back to the Joint Development Assessment Panel on September 6 for assessment.
--- ends ---
See the last line - September 6th is today - so I'm guessing the JDAP assessment was positive for EcoGraf.
I am certainly not a sophisticated investor, so while many analysts are not interested in this company, I see much future potential in what they are doing & where they are heading - especially in the new regulatory climate in Europe.
While there is no new announcement on the ASX, can someone suggest a possible reason why there has been a 16% rise in the share price this afternoon????
FINALLY!!!!! ........ after several positive announcements, we see a move in the price. Yesterday's & Today's ASX announcement are listed below.
https://www.ecograf.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ASX_EGR_Innovative-Lithium-ion-Battery-Coatings-Program-Commenced-Final.pdf
https://www.ecograf.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ASX-EGR-POSCO-EcoGraf-enter-into-Battery-Anode-Material-AgreementFinal-.pdf
Believe that the ducks are aligning and all the hard work by management will pay off as the move to electric cars gathers momentum, particularly in Europe & Asia. A long term investment ....... sure ....... but great to be a part of an exciting future.
Another positive ASX announcement (16/08/21). https://www.ecograf.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2248640.pdf ......... (despite a drop in the share price today)
Pilot study endorses the construction of recycling plant. Management seems appears very proactive in persuing opportunities, particularly in the European/Asian markets.
I understand that this is a long term investment, however they are in a long way into their R&D program, I feel that they can hold their own against much of the competition - esp. in light of the "Green" credentials that will become increasingly important ove rthe ensuing years.
I can't see why the future is not going to be very positive.
Disclosure - I hold a very small no. of shares.
An excellent report on the current state of battery recycling, an overview of the competitors and a big plug for lil' ol' Ecograf
I do not hold...... currently
Old electric cars are a raw material of the future
May 13th 2021
CAR SALES have, generally speaking, . But there has been one bright spot. (EVs) continue to grow in popularity. According to IHs Markit, a research firm, almost 2.5m battery-electric and plug-in-hybrid cars were sold around the world in 2020—and the company expects that number to grow by 70% this year. BloombergNEF, another researcher, reckons that by 2030 some 8% of the 1.4bn cars on the road will be electric, rising to more than 30% by 2040. It is not, moreover, just a matter of cars. There will also be electric lorries, buses, motorbikes, bicycles, scooters, ships and maybe even aircraft. And, when all of these machines come to the ends of their useful lives, they will need to be recycled.
Listen to this story
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This coming avalanche of e-waste will be hard to deal with. When a petrol or diesel car is dismantled and crushed, as much as 95% of it is likely to be used again. Ways to do that are well-developed, straightforward and helped by the fact that, on average, almost 70% of such a vehicle consists of readily recyclable ferrous metals. EVs, by contrast, contain a far greater variety of materials (see chart). Separating and sorting these is tricky, especially as many of them are locked up inside complex electrical components.
Flat batteries
For those who can manage to do so, though, there is good business to be had here. EVs contain lots of valuable stuff. The magnets in their motors are full of rare-earth metals, and their batteries of lithium and cobalt. Rystad Energy, a Norwegian research company, forecasts that as the number of electric vehicles being made rises, lithium prices will triple by the end of the decade. Cobalt, meanwhile, comes mainly from Congo, a country that is often war-torn and has a dreadful human-rights record.
Generally speaking, electrical waste is shredded in bulk before it is sorted and reprocessed. But lithium-ion batteries, the type used in EVs, are inflammable, so need careful handling. They are shredded separately in special machines filled with liquids or gases that suppress combustion. The result, called “black mass”, is then processed to extract its valuable components.
There are two ways of doing so. The more common at the moment is pyrometallurgy. This treats black mass as an ore, by smelting it in a furnace to liberate a metallic mixture from which pure metals, particularly the cobalt, can be separated. That, though, requires a lot of energy. It also destroys valuable non-metallic components such as the graphite in batteries’ anodes. And it fails to liberate the lithium, which ends up in compounds in the slag that is generated alongside the liquid metal, and must then be extracted separately.
The other approach, hydrometallurgy, works more subtly. It leaches metals, lithium included, out of the shredded material by dissolving them in acids or other solvents. That requires less energy and also permits the recovery of non-metallic materials such as graphite. Hydrometallurgy is more complex than pyrometallurgy, and comes with the added expense of treating the waste water it generates, to prevent pollution. But its overall advantages suggest it is the wave of the future.
Li-Cycle, a Canadian company founded in 2016 that is already the biggest recycler of lithium-ion batteries in North America, is one outfit betting on hydrometallurgy. To improve the gathering of its raw material Li-Cycle is testing what it calls spoke-and-hub systems. These collect incoming batteries of all sorts, not just those from EVs, at geographically dispersed receiving stations (the spokes), shred them, and then sort the debris, using automatic separation and sieving systems, into three types of mixture: plastic, copper and aluminium, and black mass. The plastic and the copper-aluminium mix are sold to other recyclers. The black mass is sent to the system’s hub, a hydrometallurgical processing plant that serves many spokes.
Kunal Phalpher, Li-Cycle’s chief commercial officer, says experience with a demonstration hub at the firm’s base in Kingston, Ontario, suggests this approach can recover cobalt, lithium and also nickel (an important ingredient of some non-lithium-ion batteries) in a form pure enough for those metals to be used directly to make new batteries. In all, Mr Phalpher claims, the process recycles 95% of a battery’s materials. Li-Cycle will soon complete its first properly commercial hub, in Rochester, New York, and has plans for three more around the world by 2025.
Li-Cycle is not alone, though, in its hydrometallurgical ambitions. One rival is Redwood Materials of Carson City, Nevada, which was founded in 2017 by Jeffrey Straubel, formerly chief technology officer of Tesla, a big maker of EVs. Redwood uses a combination of pyro- and hydrometallurgy in its process, with some of the recovered materials providing energy to drive the pyro side of the equation. It already recycles rejects from the American EV-battery factories of two Japanese firms, Panasonic and Nissan, and is now setting up an operation that will take used batteries from general consumer goods.
Northvolt, another firm started by ex-Tesla-ites (Peter Carlsson, its chief executive, and Paolo Cerruti, its chief operating officer), makes lithium-ion batteries for European carmakers. It is adding a recycling plant to its factory in Sweden, to process the batteries it produces there when they reach the ends of their lives. Their steel and plastic casings, and copper wiring, are removed manually before they are crushed in an inert environment. Nickel, manganese, cobalt and lithium are then removed by hydrometallurgy. Northvolt has also formed a partnership with Hydro, a Norwegian aluminium producer, to recover that metal as well. The firm hopes that, by 2030, half the materials it uses to make new batteries will have been recycled.
Similar “closed-loop” systems are being developed in other parts of the battery supply chain. For example, American Battery Technology, a firm in Nevada that mines and processes lithium, is adding a recycling plant intended to recover lithium and other metals from expired batteries. It will use the lithium in its own production processes and sell the other materials on.
The biggest battery-recycling operations of all, though, are not Western, but Chinese—not surprising, perhaps, given that China is the world’s largest market for EVs, and the country’s government has been promoting the recycling of lithium-ion batteries for some time. Brunp Reycling, a subsidiary of CATL, the world’s biggest EV-battery-maker, has half-a-dozen hydrometallurgical recycling operations around the country. Brunp says it can recycle 120,000 tonnes of old batteries a year, which it claims represents about half of China’s current annual battery-recycling capacity. Meanwhile, American Battery Technology’s approach of integrating recycling with primary production of lithium echoes that of Gangfeng Lithium, one of the world’s largest producers of lithium for batteries. Gangfeng, which has already installed a heavily automated recycling plant at its base in Jiangxi province, plans to build another as part of its mining operation in Sonora state, in Mexico.
Tesla itself also has trans-Pacific ambitions. It is setting up a battery-recycling facility at its EV factory in Shanghai, to complement one it is developing at its battery factory in Nevada. Nor is Tesla the only vehicle-maker involving itself in the industry. In January, Volkswagen opened a pilot battery-recycling plant in Salzgitter, near Hanover, to recover materials from batteries used in EVs made by its various brands.
Salzgitter is close to the company’s battery factory in Braunschweig, which is being expanded to produce more than 600,000 EV battery packs a year. The idea, says Frank Blome, head of batteries for Volkswagen Group Components, is that the firm’s battery experts will work with its recyclers to make battery packs easier to dismantle. As Mr Blome observes, “anyone who takes something apart first needs to know how it was put together.”
Designing recyclability in from the beginning will, in the long run, be crucial to the effective recycling of electric vehicles—and especially their batteries. Shredding lots of different types of e-waste at the same time inevitably results in contamination. Separating components before doing so would yield greater levels of purity. Some components, such as cathodes, might even be reused in their entirety.
Deconstructing reality
Easing disassembly is also an important goal for Volkswagen’s domestic rival, BMW. According to Frank Weber, a member of the firm’s board, BMW will, from the start, be designing its electric vehicles with mass recycling in mind. This will include the handling of the solid-state lithium-ion batteries which BMW hopes to make in volume by the end of the decade. Solid-state batteries, which are able to store more charge than those using existing gel-based electrolytes, could double the range of EVs. They will also be safer to use for, unlike those containing gel electrolytes, they will not be inflammable.
While gel electrolytes continue to persist, however, it would be best if they too could be recycled. In the case of the most common of them, lithium hexafluorophosphate (known as PF6), that does not yet happen. Instead, this valuable chemical is destroyed during processing and has to be resynthesised from any lithium recovered. But a team led by Anand Bhatt and Thomas Ruether at CSIRO, Australia’s national science organisation, think they have come up with a way to recover PF6 intact. They use a special solvent to extract it from black mass before any further metallurgical process is applied to it. The PF6 obtained in this way is, they say, good enough to be used to make new batteries without further processing.
Also in Australia, a firm called EcoGraf has developed a process that can extract graphite from black mass with a purity that allows it be reused for making anodes. SungEel HiTech, a scrap-merchant that is South Korea’s biggest battery recycler, is now setting up a plant at its factory in Gusan to do just that.
Scrap merchants have to be flexible. SungEel’s previous main business was recycling plasma-television screens, which have, these days, largely, been superseded by LED versions. Plasma televisions turned out to be a passing fad. EVs, though, are likely to run and run. ?
EcoGraf and First Sentier Sharecafe Hidden Gems Webinar 12/3/21
EcoGraf Limited (EcoGraf or the Company) (ASX: EGR) is pleased to advise that a recording is available on its website of a presentation by EcoGraf’s Executive Director – Finance, Mr. Howard Rae, for the Sharecafe Hidden Gems Webinar held on 12 March 2021, that focussed on the clean/green energy sector.
The recording also includes a keynote speech delivered at the webinar by Mr. Tim Canham, Senior Portfolio Manager, Emerging Companies at First Sentier Investors, which is EcoGraf’s largest shareholder
https://youtu.be/KSkdUPG5JsY
First Sentier Investors ~ 0 to approx 17:00
EcoGraph ~ approx 17:00 to end, approx 34 mins
Disc : I hold
EcoGraf features at
Mineral Recycling Forum 2021 ~ Tues 9 Feb 2021
EcoGraf was pleased to present its vertically integrated battery anode materials business at the Informed Mineral Recycling Forum with Maria Nyberg, Policy Advisor for the European Commission that provided an overview of the latest policy landscape for critical raw materials and recycling.
Recording features:
- Maria Nyberg, European Commission from 00:13 min
- Andrew Spinks, EcoGraf from 21:27 min
- QA with host Mike O’Driscoll from 42:09 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSeAzKdfdJ8&feature=youtu.be
European Trading and Proposed US Listing of EcoGraf Shares
EcoGraf Limited (EcoGraf or the Company) (ASX: EGR) is pleased to provide an update regarding international trading through its secondary listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under code “FMK”.
The listing provides valuable exposure for the Company to European investors and EcoGraf has observed increased investment through the Frankfurt Stock Exchange over the past month with the JP Morgan Nominees holding account for the European platform increasing from 12.5% to over 19.6% of the Company’s issued capital. 1
This increased trading activity is considered to be in response to the recent announcements from the EU Commission foreshadowing new legislation to require greater recycling, visibility, and traceability of raw materials within the electric vehicle (‘EV’) supply chain. An aspiration fully consistent with the Company’s vertically integrated eco-friendly battery anode materials and recycling business for the lithium-ion battery markets.
As a result, EcoGraf is expanding its investor services to shareholders and investors in Europe and is also pursuing further international investor exposure by investigating potential trading on the ‘Over the Counter’ Market (OTC) in the United States.
This move is in response to the surging investor interest in the USA for the electric vehicle sector and its supply chain, which has been recently stimulated by President Biden announcing plans to replace the US Government vehicle fleet with electric vehicles and supporting the global shift to EV’s.
The OTC Markets Group is one of the largest and best-known trading networks in the US. It consists of three stock exchanges: OTC Pink, OTCQB, and OTCQX. (further information is available at: https://www.otcmarkets.com/). The Company is currently investigating a dual listing on the OTCQX which is the highest quality tier, with electronic trading via registration with the Depositary Trust Company (DTC).
This announcement is authorised for release by Andrew Spinks, Managing Director
1 ~JP Morgan Nominees does not have a relevant interest in these shares and acts solely as a nominee for the investors on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
DISC: I hold
Anode Recycling Program for Major Electric Vehicle Manufacturer Delivers Outstanding Results
RESULTS PROVIDE FURTHER CONFIDENCE FOR ECOGRAFTM PROPRIETARY PURIFICATION TO CONTRIBUTE TO GREATER LITHIUM-ION BATTERY RECYCLING
EcoGraf Limited (EcoGraf or the Company) (ASX: EGR) is pleased to announce the outcome of a recent testwork program utilising the Company’s ‘HF free’ proprietary purification process to recover carbon anode material from production waste generated during the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries.
Outstanding results of >99.95% carbon purity achieved during the recycling program which confirms the effectiveness of the EcoGraf™ process in recovering graphite anode material to the specification required for re-use in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.
DISC: I hold
Western Australian EcoGraf™ Battery Graphite Facility Advancing to Development EcoGraf Limited (ACN 117 330 757) (“EcoGraf” or the “Company”) (ASX: EGR) is pleased to report a positive start to the year with encouraging development progress across its vertically integrated ‘HF free’ graphite businesses.
During the recent quarter the Company submitted detailed development reports and engineering study information to Export Finance Australia as part of securing a US$35m (A$45m) project debt facility to underpin the new 20,000 tonnes per annum EcoGraf™ Battery Graphite Facility. Supporting reports are being compiled and will be completed shortly, following which final credit approvals are expected, a process that typically takes up to two months.
As a result, the Company is currently also finalising arrangements for the detailed engineering design and procurement programs in preparation for construction. The new Western Australian EcoGraf™ Battery Graphite Facility will be the Company’s first facility and the first to be established outside of China.
The Company has received strong support from anode cell, battery and electric vehicle manufacturers for alternative supplies of high quality, sustainably produced battery graphite to support the massive global investment underway in new electric vehicles and lithium-ion battery capacity
DISC: I hold