POSCO Inter, Secures 'Graphite' Battery Material in Africa

POSCO International is expanding its business to procure the secondary battery raw material 'graphite' in Africa.

POSCO International announced on the 4th that it visited Madagascar and Tanzania from the 28th of last month to the 2nd of this month and signed two 'Graphite Supply Chain Establishment Memorandums of Understanding (MOU)'.

Through these two MOUs, POSCO International secured an annual supply of about 90,000 tons of flake graphite. The importance of securing mineral resources such as graphite and nickel, which are widely used as battery raw materials recently, is increasing. A POSCO International official explained that this MOU is significant in that it secured raw materials that can immediately respond to the situation where non-Chinese graphite supply is essential for anode materials supplied to North America from 2025 under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

The first MOU was signed on the 28th of last month in Antananarivo, Madagascar. POSCO International signed a 'business agreement for joint investment in the Molo graphite mine' with the Canadian mining company NextSource. Through this agreement, POSCO International is expected to procure flake graphite (30,000 tons annually) or amorphous graphite (15,000 tons annually) produced at the Molo mine for 10 years. The secured graphite will be supplied to POSCO Future M, the group's secondary battery company.

POSCO International signed a business agreement for joint investment with Australia's BlackRock Mining and Paru Graphite on the 1st in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. (From left) Greg Wheeler, Chief Commercial Officer of BlackRock Mining; Alimiya Osman Mung'e, CEO of Paru Graphite; Kim Byung-hwi, Head of the Eco-friendly Division at POSCO International. Photo by POSCO International

Subsequently, on the 1st of this month, the second MOU was signed in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. POSCO International plans to participate in a capital increase of Australian Black Rock Mining and negotiate expanding the annual natural graphite purchase rights to 60,000 tons. Australian Black Rock Mining owns the world's second-largest large-scale natural graphite mine. POSCO International also invested $10 million in May this year in Black Rock Mining's Mahenge mine. Through this, it signed a natural graphite supply contract for a total of 750,000 tons over 25 years, supplying about 30,000 tons annually.

A POSCO International official said, "The confidence to boldly enter the secondary battery material supply chain was possible because of the 25 years of accumulated global non-ferrous metal business experience," adding, "We will leverage our capabilities as a business developer and trader to become a key part of completing the group's secondary battery value chain and contribute to national resource security."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.