Graphite One announces U.S. laboratory will test Graphite Creek material for additional critical mineral recoveries

VANCOUVER — Graphite One Inc., announced its wholly owned subsidiary, Graphite One (Alaska) Inc., has provided material from its Graphite Creek deposit to Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as part of Sandia’s green extraction processing work, conducted under the auspices of Sandia’s Climate Change Security Center with a cross-organizational team of technical experts. The project is funded by Sandia’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.

Sandia’s patent-pending process was awarded a R&D 100 Award, “GOLD Special Recognition in Green Technology for Environmentally Benign Extraction of Critical Metals Using Supercritical CO2-Based Solvent” in 2021. Sandia’s method uses supercritical CO2 in combination with a food-grade additive to extract rare earths and other critical minerals. Sandia will test Graphite Creek material as a potentially critical mineral-rich carbonaceous feedstock.

“We are pleased that Sandia will apply its path-breaking process to Graphite Creek material,” said Anthony Huston, CEO of Graphite One. “We are excited about the potential for value-added applications which identify flake graphite from Graphite Creek as a unique resource, and Sandia’s process will provide us important data on that potential with implications for how we unlock the value of G1’s additional critical minerals.”