Westwater Resources Pilot Program Achieves Production Milestone
March 24 2021 - 6:00AM
Business Wire
11 Metric Tonnes of Battery-Grade Graphite
Products Produced For Potential Customers
Definitive Feasibility Study on Schedule for
Mid-Year Completion
Westwater Resources, Inc. (NYSE American: WWR), an energy
materials development company, today announced a production
milestone at its pilot plant operations at Dorfner Anzaplan’s
facilities near Amberg, Germany, as well as at facilities in
Frankfurt, Germany; Chicago, Illinois; and Buffalo, New York. The
combined effort at these facilities has produced more than 11
metric tonnes of Westwater’s three battery-grade graphite products:
ULTRA-PMG™, ULTRA-CSPG™ and ULTRA-DEXDG™, which were previously
produced at a bench scale.
As of March 18, Westwater has produced:
- 9.7 metric tonnes of ULTRA-PMG™ in six sizes (6, 8, 10, 15, 30
and 44 microns). Production is now complete, and samples will be
packaged and shipped to a laboratory for testing.
- 1.5 metric tonnes of the precursor (Spherical Purified
Graphite) for ULTRA-CSPG™ in three sizes (10, 18 and 24 microns).
Production of this product will continue until the first week of
April, when samples will be packaged and shipped to a laboratory
for testing and coating to make ULTRA-CSPGTM.
- 0.2 metric tonnes of ULTRA-DEXDG™; samples will be packaged and
shipped to a laboratory for testing once production is finished in
mid-April.
Westwater undertook its pilot program operations to inform and
enhance design work for its commercial production facility and to
produce products for testing by potential customers. The
information from those operations is being incorporated into a
Definitive Feasibility Study (“DFS”). As previously announced,
Westwater has awarded the preparation of the DFS to a team of
experienced and qualified engineering and consulting companies led
by Samuel Engineering.
“I am very pleased with the hard work our team has put in on
this effort,” said Chris Jones, CEO of Westwater Resources.
“Samples of all three of our products have been requested by
multiple battery producers, and we expect to ship product to them
within 30-90 days.
“The core of our pilot program is the measurement of all inputs
– such as energy and reagents – and outputs to ensure these
high-performance battery-grade graphite products are manufactured
in a manner that does not harm our employees, our communities or
the environment,” Jones continued. “We will use these measurements
in our DFS which we expect to complete by mid-2021. The feasibility
study will include plans for the final design of the commercial
production facility and will be the basis for the construction of
the facility from mid-2021 through 2022. We expect to commission
the commercial plant in the fourth quarter of 2022.”
The Westwater Battery Graphite Process
The distinguishing characteristics of the Westwater battery
graphite process include:
- Our process produces three battery-grade graphite materials,
which broadens the marketplace to all types of batteries, rather
than a single battery product line.
- Westwater does not use harmful hydrofluoric acid like our
Chinese competitors.
- Off-spec materials generated by the Coated Spherical Graphite
process will be utilized to bolster Purified Micronized Graphite
production.
About Westwater Resources
Westwater Resources (NYSE American: WWR) is focused on
developing battery-grade graphite. The Company’s projects include
the Coosa Graphite Project — the most advanced natural flake
graphite project in the contiguous United States — and the
associated Coosa Graphite Deposit located across 41,900 acres
(~17,000 hectares) in east-central Alabama. For more information,
visit www.westwaterresources.net.
Cautionary Statement
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and
assumptions and are identified by words such as "expects,"
"estimates," "projects," "anticipates," "believes," "could,"
“scheduled,” and other similar words. All statements addressing
events or developments that WWR expects or anticipates will occur
in the future, including but not limited to the commencement of
operations at the Company’s proposed commercial plant facilities,
future production of battery graphite products, future financing
activities and financial resources, and activities involving the
Coosa Graphite Project and the Coosa Graphite Deposit, are
forward-looking statements. Because they are forward-looking, they
should be evaluated in light of important risk factors and
uncertainties. These risk factors and uncertainties include, but
are not limited to, (a) the Company’s ability to successfully
produce battery grade materials in quantities and on schedules
consistent with the Coosa Graphite Project business plan; (b) the
Company’s ability to raise additional capital in the future
including the ability to utilize existing financing facilities; (c)
spot price and long-term contract price of graphite and vanadium;
(d) risks associated with our operations and the operations of our
partners such as Dorfner Anzaplan and Samuel Engineering, including
the impact of COVID-19 and its potential impacts to the capital
markets; (e) operating conditions at the Company’s projects; (f)
government regulation of the graphite industry and the vanadium
industry; (g) world-wide graphite and vanadium supply and demand,
including the supply and demand for energy storage batteries; (h)
unanticipated geological, processing, regulatory and legal or other
problems the Company may encounter in the jurisdictions where the
Company operates or intends to operate, including but not limited
to Alabama and Colorado; (i) the ability of the Company to enter
into and successfully close material transactions; (j) any graphite
or vanadium discoveries not being in high-enough concentration to
make it economic to extract the minerals; (k) currently pending or
new litigation or arbitration; and (l) other factors which are more
fully described in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K,
subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and other filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these
risks or uncertainties materialize or should any of the Company’s
underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary
materially from those currently anticipated. In addition, undue
reliance should not be placed on the Company’s forward-looking
statements. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any
obligation to update or publicly announce any revisions to any of
the forward-looking statements contained in this news release.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210324005153/en/
Westwater Resources
Christopher M. Jones, President & CEO Phone: 303.531.0480
Jeff Vigil, VP Finance & CFO Phone: 303.531.0481
Email: Info@WestwaterResources.net
Product Sales Contact: Jay Wago, Vice President – Sales and
Marketing Phone: 303.531.0472
Email: Sales@westwaterresources.net
Investor Relations Porter, LeVay & Rose Michael
Porter, President Phone: 212.564.4700
Email: Westwater@plrinvest.com
Westwater Resources (NASDAQ:WWR)
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