BlackEarth Minerals (ASX:BEM) has signed an agreement with leading international graphite procurement, supply and marketing specialist Luxcarbon GmbH of Germany.
Under the terms of the Agreement, Luxcarbon will source and supply to BlackEarth up to the amount of 25,000mt pa of high-grade concentrate, with the graphite supplied from world class operations known to the BEM executive team. This forms a key element of the concentrate supply component of the Agreement.
The Agreement also provides that Luxcarbon shall exclusively market and sell BEM and BEM JV produced material into the European markets to well-known and defined end users. BEM’s focus will be for the initial supply of downstream products for use in the rapidly expanding EV and battery market.
BlackEarth Managing Director, Tom Revy, said the marketing and sales component of the Agreement provides that Luxcarbon will sell up to 25,000mt pa of BEM and BEM JV produced product. Much work has been done to date by parties to this agreement and our research indicates there is extensive demand for downstream graphite products now and in the future.
The terms of this Agreement are for three years with the ability for the parties to extend this by mutual consent.
The Board are delighted to sign this Agreement with Luxcarbon, a leader in the graphite supply and marketing of graphite concentrate and downstream products throughout Europe,” Mr Revy said.
“This Agreement provides a number of great outcomes for BlackEarth. Firstly, it enables us to secure a supply of world class graphite concentrate that can be supplied to Urbix’s operations in the USA and also our own downstream processing facility whilst we complete the development of our plants in Australia and Madagascar.
“Secondly, Luxcarbon are leaders in the supply and understanding of downstream graphite products and this will assist us greatly. Members of the Luxcarbon team and BlackEarth Director, David Round, have previously worked extensively together in developing sales and market networks for the supply of substantial quantities of graphite and we are very confident this relationship will ensure similar, positive commercial outcomes for our companies.
“We are excited at the prospects and opportunities this unique agreement provides to our shareholders.”
The Luxcarbon deal follows BEM’s February 2021 signing of a collaborative MOU with well-known U.S based downstream graphite developers, Urbix Inc.
The Agreement allows BEM to quickly source high grade graphite concentrate to provide to Urbix for their use after a series of quality tests. Information available to BEM suggests that the high grade graphite concentrate is highly suitable for use in downstream production and this product can be successfully treated to a purified graphite form.
The Agreement also provides the BEM team with the advantage of having a secure and substantial product supply to meet its proposed downstream JV operations and other downstream production plans that it is developing in Australia and in overseas jurisdictions.