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Mason Graphite announces transition to battery material commercialisation

Mason Graphite announces transition to battery material commercialisation

MONTREAL — On June 7, Mason Graphite Inc. announces that the cycling tests, carried out on its full prototype pouch cell batteries, are conclusive, having crossed the objective of 1,000 charge & discharge cycles while maintaining a capacity retention of 80.6%.

This value-added transformation process was developed in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and Corem, a research and innovation center in Quebec City. The process was designed based on a benchmarking study completed from the onset of this battery material program, ensuring that the resulting product would meet the general requirements and specifications of battery manufacturers.

This achievement enhances the Company’s ability to execute on the commercialisation of the Lac Gueret graphite as a key component in the rapidly expanding battery market.

Commercialisation

The Company has expanded its workforce in order to expedite the commercialisation activities, which are expected to progress in the months ahead. The team at Mason Graphite possesses experience in commercialisation having led the commercialisation efforts and built the client base of a well recognized global graphite producer. This includes having qualified and distributed graphite products in all applications, including to most globally recognized alkaline and Li-ion battery manufacturers.

Battery Material Program

Mason Graphite has been working since 2015 on the development and improvement of its transformation process with the NRC. Mason Graphite and its partners have developed and mastered the purification, shaping and ultimately coating processes to meet the chemical and physical properties required to achieve the electrochemical performance sought by battery manufacturers.

For the project team, achieving these results represents a significant step forward for the Canadian electric vehicle industry, but also for other potential lithium-ion battery applications.

Francis Fournier, Corem’s President and CEO added: “We are proud of our contribution since 2014 with Mason Graphite to the development of innovations for the extraction, purification and value-addition of the Lac Guéret project graphite. The tested coated spherical graphite was produced on a pilot scale at Corem’s facilities. The processes developed in collaboration with Mason Graphite are a good example of Corem’s role as a partner of the mining sector in the transition to a green economy such as the electrification of transportation.”

Jean L’Heureux, Chief Operating Officer of Mason Graphite, concluded: “The accomplishment celebrated today is the result of thousands of hours of work carried out by the Mason Graphite’s team and by our partners. We would like to thank everyone involved for their invaluable contribution to this achievement.”