Northern Graphite and Partners Launch German-Funded R&D Program

Core Viewpoint - Northern Graphite Corporation, along with partners, has launched the USE-G initiative to develop environmentally friendly graphite extraction technologies for Europe's battery industry, funded primarily by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy [1][2][8] Group 1: Project Overview - The USE-G initiative aims to create new graphite processing technologies that are cleaner, less energy-intensive, and independent of Chinese supply chains, with a total project budget of €1.70 million, of which €1.14 million is contributed by the Ministry [2][3] - The project will focus on the purification of natural graphite without hydrofluoric acid, the development of sustainable coating materials, and the recovery of graphite from battery recycling [3][5] Group 2: Roles and Contributions - Northern Graphite will supply natural graphite from its Canadian mine and potentially from its Namibian mine, and will conduct milling, shaping, and battery testing in Germany [4][6] - H.C. Starck Tungsten will provide technology to extract graphite from spent lithium-ion batteries, enabling the recycling of materials typically lost in conventional processes [4][9] - Friedrich Schiller University Jena will lead the development of a novel chlorine gas purification method, which is cleaner and less energy-intensive than current methods [5][9] Group 3: Goals and Timeline - The project will initially process natural and recycled graphite separately to establish performance and purity benchmarks, followed by evaluations for blending these materials into a unified anode product [6][9] - The USE-G program commenced on January 1, 2026, and will run until December 31, 2029, aiming to demonstrate a complete European-controlled graphite processing flow sheet by the end of the program [9]