TSX-listed NextSource Materials has announced that a technical team from Germany’s Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) attended a site visit at the Company’s Molo Graphite Mine in southern Madagascar this week.
This requested visit formed part of an independent study by the BGR on graphite production in Madagascar, financed by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
BGR expressed specific interest in assessing Molo, alongside traditional graphite operations elsewhere in Madagascar, as a benchmark asset and potential supplier of natural graphite and anode material to Germany – reflecting the strategic priority the German Federal Government places on graphite as a critical raw material for German industry, the European battery supply chain, and energy security.
The study is being conducted with the approval and support of the Madagascar Ministry of Mines, with findings to be presented back to Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
As with the United States and Canada, Germany has placed critical raw materials at the centre of its industrial and energy security policy. Natural graphite is on the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials List, and the German Federal Government has committed significant capital to its diversification agenda — including the €1 billion Rohstofffonds (Raw Materials Fund) administered by Germany’s state development bank KfW, which provides minority equity investment of up to €150 million in qualifying upstream mining and processing projects, alongside a coordinated €2.5 billion critical minerals investment framework with France and Italy.
As one of very few sources of high-quality natural flake graphite in production outside of China, Molo is well-suited to and aligned with the strategic supply objectives Germany is actively focused on.
Notably, NextSource already has an established commercial link to German industry. In May 2021, NextSource executed a 10-year commercial sales agreement with thyssenkrupp Materials Trading GmbH, a division of the German industrial engineering and steel production company, Thyssenkrupp AG. The sales agreement comprises terms whereby thyssenkrupp is guaranteed a minimum of 7 300 tonnes per annum (tpa) of SuperFlake® graphite concentrate from Molo Phase 1 operations, and up to 35 000 tpa when Molo capacity is expanded to Phase 2.