Graphene Manufacturing Group Ltd (TSX-V:GMG, OTC:GMGMF) said it has received regulatory and local council approvals to manufacture batteries at commercial scale at its existing Richlands site in Brisbane, Australia.
To date, the Australia-based clean-tech company has been adhering to a research and development regulatory approval to make battery cell prototypes. In addition, this site already has council approvals allowing the company to manufacture its graphene.
The regulatory approvals are an important step in GMG's consideration of an appropriate juncture to build and operate a battery manufacturing plant at its headquarters at Richlands, noted the company.
READ:Graphene Manufacturing Group streamlines internal teams to support development of graphene production
To that end, GMG said it continues to advance its battery development roadmap, including:
- Further develop, engineer, design, and test battery prototype components to achieve the user-required performance data for potentially either coin cell or pouch cell battery;
- Additionally, design engineering and production testing of manufacturing systems to enable the manufacture of the prototypes in a semi or fully-automated process;
- Solidification of necessary supply agreements;
- Full constraints analysis of the existing building, ensuring existing warehouse and electricity supply are adequate for the final plant design and fit within the constraints of the development approval;
- Delivery of the Graphene Expansion project and review of further expansion projects as required;
- Full battery prototype testing and quality assurance to international standards, regulations and approvals where required;
- Work towards securing battery sales agreements.
In a statement, Graphene Manufacturing Group CEO Craig Nicol said: "This is another milestone in the maturation of the company. This allows GMG to take its battery development roadmap further with reassurance that government approvals have been granted to build and operate a plant at our existing location."
The milestone aligns with the company’s four critical business objectives which are as follows:
- Produce graphene and scale the production process;
- Build revenue from energy savings products;
- Develop next-generation batteries;
- Develop the supply chain, partners and project execution capability.
GMG produces graphene and hydrogen by cracking methane (natural gas) instead of mining graphite. By using a proprietary process, GMG can produce scalable, 'tuneable' and no or low contaminant graphene in clean-tech applications. It is developing value-added products that target the energy efficiency and energy storage markets. It is also pursuing opportunities for GMG graphene enhanced products, including developing next generation batteries.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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