Renascor achieves battery-grade purity at Adelaide plant

Renascor Resources has successfully produced graphite with a carbon purity of 99.97% at its Adelaide demonstration plant. This exceeds the typical 99.95% purity required by battery manufacturers for anodes in lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

This achievement validates Renascor's purification process, which notably avoids the use of hydrofluoric acid, a hazardous chemical. The majority of graphite purification for batteries is conducted in China, where new export license requirements for spherical graphite were introduced in December 2023. Therefore, Renascor's plant offers an alternative source for battery manufacturers.

Renascor plans to supply graphite from the Siviour deposit on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula. This site is reported to be the second-largest proven graphite reserve globally and the largest outside Africa, with an ore reserve of 61.8 million tonnes at 7% total graphitic carbon.

The Siviour battery anode material project will connect an open-pit mine at Siviour with a facility to convert graphite concentrate into purified spherical graphite for export. The mining lease was granted in 2019, and the environmental program was approved in 2022. In 2025, the South Australian government approved the development application for a facility capable of producing up to 100,000 tonnes of purified spherical graphite annually, pending final design approval.

The Adelaide plant serves as a downstream test for this plan, designed to process graphite continuously and produce tonne-scale quantities for potential customers and partners. Processing began in June, with the plant officially opening in July.

The 99.97% purity result was obtained from batch trials using third-party spherical graphite to establish performance benchmarks. Renascor plans to process its own Siviour graphite through the plant, having already achieved higher purity in laboratory tests. The trials, each lasting about five days, confirmed that the purification stages met design expectations.

Renascor's process potentially offers lower reagent consumption, recycling, and safer handling compared to conventional methods. The company estimates purification operating costs at approximately $US459 per tonne, supporting a competitive graphite source outside China.

Renascor is in talks with potential offtake and strategic partners and has a conditionally approved $185 million loan from the Australian Government’s Critical Minerals Facility. As of June 30, the company held about $94 million in cash. Further batch trials, including those using Siviour graphite, are planned for this quarter, followed by multi-tonne continuous runs with reagent and water recycling. Renascor has secured enough feedstock to operate the plant until March 2027, with ongoing progress expected in customer qualification and strategic partnerships to support broader financing efforts.