Graphene Manufacturing Group Ltd (TSX-V:GMG, OTC:GMGMF) (GMG) said it has taken a final investment decision (FID) on Phase 1 of its graphene manufacturing expansion project.
In a statement, GMG's managing director and CEO, Craig Nicol, commented: "Taking FID on this project is not only a reflection on the level of confidence we have in manufacturing high quality graphene for our applications at scale, it's also a reflection of our confidence to commercialise energy savings and energy storage applications in the near term."
"It is very pleasing to see that we are now scaling up our graphene manufacturing capacity using the propriety process that we developed ourselves since 2017," he added.
The expansion project includes an executed 5 year lease to expand total office and warehouse space to 3,500 square metres, the next generation of the company's proprietary graphene production technology with enhanced automation, a micro-grid with energy storage component to improve commercial and environmental electricity supply for the production process, and an infrastructure corridor to allow rapid scaling of further graphene manufacturing capacity during future phases of the graphene manufacturing expansion project.
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The project will be managed and executed by the company's engineers with Wood Engineering - the company's graphene manufacturing scaling engineering service supplier - providing safety, assurance and design review services.
Following positive potential customer feedback from graphene aluminium-ion (G+AI) battery coin cell prototype testing, and ongoing enhancements to GMG's unique graphene production process, the company said it believes enhanced and expanded production facilities are now appropriate.
The lease commitment of the additional new office and warehouse space of 1,500 square metres, which is adjacent to the existing company leased 2,000 square metre office and warehouse, is intended to accommodate new staff and expand graphene manufacturing capacity.
The Phase 1 expansion project is expected to provide ample graphene supply for the production of the company's G+AI battery coin cells, as well as the company's energy-saving liquid graphene products.
The total investment of approximately A$1.5 million is expected to be fully commissioned by the first half of 2023. This project was envisaged in the September 2021 market raise but now also includes costs to relocate all of GMG's existing graphene manufacturing capacity adjacent to its new headquarters and Battery Development Centre (BDC) in Brisbane, Australia.
A potential subsequent FID for further expanded graphene production which is expected to be located in the new warehouse space, will be considered upon the maturing of targeted commercialisation opportunities for either the company's G+AI battery and energy-saving liquid graphene products. The newly leased site is expected to have enough space to enable multiple such increases of production.
By increasing the use of solar power, co-generation and energy storage systems, electricity supply will be largely self-sufficient and achieve a lower carbon emissions footprint for the production facility.
GMG is a clean-technology company which seeks to offer energy-saving and energy storage solutions, enabled by graphene, including that manufactured in-house via a proprietary production process.
GMG has developed a proprietary production process to decompose natural gas (ie. methane) into its elements, carbon (as graphene), hydrogen and some residual hydrocarbon gases. This process produces high quality, low cost, scalable, 'tuneable' and low/no contaminant graphene suitable for use in clean-technology and other applications. The company's present focus is to de-risk and develop commercial scale-up capabilities, and secure market applications.
In the energy savings segment, GMG has focused on graphene-enhanced heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC-R) coating, or energy-saving paint, lubricants and fluids. In the energy storage segment, GMG and the University of Queensland are working collaboratively with financial support from the Australian Government to progress R&D and commercialization of G+AI batteries.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com