WEATHERSFIELD — Graphite One, the company that has proposed a $435 million plant here to produce synthetic graphite material crucial for making batteries for electric vehicles, is simultaneously working to open a natural graphite mine in Alaska.

Material mined at the site on the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, when it’s operational, would be shipped by barge, then by train to the plant in Weathersfield, where it and the artificial graphite would be used to make anode material so desired by automakers for their EVs.

The mine won’t be ready until at least 2030, according to Mike Schaffner, senior vice president of operations for Graphite One, but that won’t stop production from starting here first, sometime around 2026 if all goes as planned.

“This facility (in Weathersfield) will start out as a synthetic or artificial graphite facility. You need them both to make natural graphite into battery quality anode, and so our strategy is to start the synthetic portion first. It gets us to the revenue stream quicker,” Schaffner said Tuesday during a visit to the site, the former Defense National Stockpile Center on Warren Avenue.

The site is known now as the Warren Tech Park.

Graphite One, based in Canada, announced in March that a subsidiary, Graphite One (Alaska), signed a 50-year lease for 85 acres to build a highly mechanized graphite anode manufacturing plant. It’s a spoke of the company’s endeavor to complete a domestic U.S. supply chain for the material that is nonexistent at the moment, but rather all coming from China, Schaffner said.

Phase one target production is 25,000 tons per year ramping to 100,000 tons per year at full capacity.

The company is considering various financing options. Financing, Schaffner said, will dictate the speed at which the facility is building.

“As far as financing goes, we’ve got to raise the funds, and we’re talking to institutions for that, and it’s looking positive. I can’t say as to who and where because it’s not signed,” he said.

FROM NOME TO TRUMBULL COUNTY

The company secured a $37.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense “to complete the feasibility study and to complete the environmental work to show what the hazards and the implications for the area would be,” Schaffner said of the mine.

When the grant was awarded in July, the processing plant was sited for Washington state, but that fell through, “so we relocated here,” Schaffner said of the land in Weathersfield.

At capacity, the mine would produce about 175,000 tons of natural graphite a year.

The feasibility study is expected to be complete by December. It “will determine the economics of the mine, so it’s not a guarantee now.” Schaffner said. After that is the permitting process with U.S. and state agencies, which Schaffner said is planned to begin in the first quarter of 2025, and once that starts, so does a two-year clock to complete an environmental impact study.

Assuming the mine opens, the plan would be to ship the material by barge to Seattle and then by railcar to Weathersfield. But the logistics from Nome get complicated because the ocean is frozen six months of the year, Schaffner said.

“To do that, you essentially store your concentrate on that end and ship it during the thawed season, when the Bering Sea thaws,” Schaffner said.

The first barge out of Nome is around June 1. The last barge out is around Oct. 1, he said.

So to keep production running, “we have to store enough graphite down here,” to make up for the logistical issue.

OTHER LOCAL DETAILS

The lease agreement gives Graphite One (Alaska) the option to purchase the land, a brownfield site that has gotten a clean bill of health from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. Also, the company has the ability to lease or acquire up to 30 more contiguous acres.

Because the anode material is tested for two years by manufacturers to qualify for EV battery use, the plan is to install a 1,000-ton per year plant at the Weathersfield site “where we develop the precursors, and we’ll also use that to test the natural graphite here,” Schaffner said.

WORKFORCE

Doug Smith, board chairman for Graphite One, said the facility would be highly mechanized and computer controlled, while Schaffner said workforce needs run from scientists to human resources to production employees.

To start, it’s expected the facility would employ about 175 people. As production ramps to the 100,000-ton capacity, anticipated to be around 2036, the plant would employ about 625 people.

Graphite One representatives have already met with the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition, a group of local businesses and education / training partners that focuses on workforce development for manufacturers.

Alex Hertzer is the coalition’s interim executive director.

It operates WorkAdvance, a state- and federally-funded program that teaches people without manufacturing skills the ABCs of manufacturing to prepare them to enter and advance in the field.

New companies to the Mahoning Valley mostly use it to train entry- and mid-level employees, he said.

For the last couple of years, the program has operated in Mahoning County under a partnership with the National Center for Urban Solutions, which provides job readiness, career coaching and recruiting services and formerly Eastern Gateway Community College for the technical training, but that service has migrated to Youngstown State University.

In October, the coalition with community partners launched the initiative in Trumbull County at Trumbull Community Action Program.

It’s what Hertzer said he believes is the best option for Graphite One to scale its workforce. WorkAdvance is nimble enough to tailor training needs per individual company and comes with a career coach for participants.

“They have somebody with them for 12 months who checks in with them every week to make sure they are getting to work, if it’s going well. They are talking to the employer,” said Hertzer, adding another role of the coach is helping to remove personal work barriers like transportation or child care.

Have an interesting story? Email Business Editor Ron Selak Jr. at rselak@tribtoday.com.