Leading battery materials and technology company NOVONIX Limited’s (ASX: NVX) NOVONIX Anode Materials division has finalised its US$100 million grant award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
The grant will support expansion of domestic production of high-performance, synthetic graphite anode materials at its Riverside facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
In late October, NOVONIX announced its selection to enter negotiations for US$150 million in grant funding to support the construction of a new synthetic graphite manufacturing facility with a targeted initial output of 30,000 tonnes per annum (tpa).
Through negotiations with the DOE, the company successfully reallocated the funding more immediately to its Riverside facility which has a target production of and, accordingly, resized the award to US$100 million will support the installation and commissioning of equipment to produce the targeted 20,000 tpa of capacity from Riverside.
Under the terms of the grant, government funds must be matched by the recipient. In addition to the US$100 million DOE grant funding, the Company expects its cash position, customer revenues, additional government programs, strategic partners and other capital sources to fund planned growth.
We are excited to complete the award negotiation with the DOE and expand the capacity of our Riverside facility. The ability to deploy $100 million towards Riverside’s recently increased production targets will have an immediate beneficial impact on the company’s plans and the battery materials supply chain here in North America,” said CEO Dr Chris Burns.
“Recent Chinese export controls on graphite reiterate the importance of building domestic supply in the US. We remain committed to continued expansion and building additional production facilities with our focus currently on reaching mass production at Riverside to demonstrate our ability to compete, both technically and commercially, on a global scale.”
This grant funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is aimed to support establishing a North American battery supply chain amidst surging demand and growing calls to onshore these critical industries. Synthetic graphite is currently imported almost exclusively from China.
NOVONIX’s Riverside facility is due to begin production in late 2024 to support the Company’s supply agreement with KORE Power, and the Company will provide a progress update in the first quarter of 2024.
The company continues to engage with other prospective customers about product qualification, production timelines, and potential supply agreements that could be supported from Riverside or future production facilities.
NOVONIX also continues to advance plans for a new production facility with an initial production target of at least 30,000 tpa. The engineering and design of this facility will leverage the updated engineering specific to Riverside to be completed in the first quarter of next year.
The company’s application for funding support under the DOE Loan Programmes Office’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Programme has been invited to Due Diligence.
A loan through the ATVM programme may provide leverage up to 80% of eligible project costs of the company’s next facility. The timing of this next facility and NOVONIX’s subsequent plans to reach 150,000 tpa of production in North America will be based on the timelines of potential customer demand.
