Westwater Resources Inc (NYSE-A:WWR) announced that it has increased its Phase 1 production capacity at its Kellyton graphite processing plant in Alabama to 12,500 million tons (mt) of battery-grade natural graphite anode material.
The company said that during the fourth quarter of 2023 and early 2024, it worked with a third-party engineering firm and equipment manufacturers to increase the design capacity of coated spherical purified graphite (CSPG) production at the plant.
As a result, Westwater said it expects to increase its CSPG production by 25% to 12,500 mt per year while remaining within the Phase 1 cost estimate of $271 million.
It noted that this comes after in November 2023, it increased the Phase 1 capacity from 7,500 mt to 10,000 mt.
"Westwater is making great progress commercially with the signing of our first multi-year offtake agreement, and now technically by adding additional Phase 1 production," Westwater CEO Frank Bakker said in a statement.
"We believe the market interest in our CSPG is due in part to the recent Foreign Entity of Concern guidance requiring EV tax credit vehicles use of IRA-compliant graphite by 2025, and by new Chinese export restrictions on graphite that have reduced security of supply."
Westwater chairman Terence Cryan added that, by increasing production at its Kellyton plant, the company was responding to customer demand signals for "Made in the USA" battery anode material.
"This 25% increase in Phase 1 plant capacity simultaneously improves the projected Kellyton plant economics, and importantly, the inherent estimated profitability of our company," Cryan said.
“It will also aid us in securing the debt financing planned for the completion of Phase 1."
Westwater Resources is an energy technology company focused on developing battery-grade natural graphite.