CENTENNIAL, Colo., June 26, 2018 – Westwater Resources, Inc. (“Westwater,” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: WWR), a green energy materials development company, announced today that it has issued its business plan for producing advanced graphite products for battery manufacturers through its wholly-owned subsidiary Alabama Graphite Company, Inc. (AGC). The AGC business plan can be found on Westwater’s website: www.westwaterresources.net.
On April 23, 2018, Westwater acquired AGC as part of a strategic decision to refocus the Company to supply battery manufacturers with low-cost, advanced, high-quality, and high-margin graphite products. The principal asset acquired is the Coosa Graphite Project (“Coosa Project”), which includes the Coosa Graphite mine located near Sylacauga, Alabama, 50 miles southeast of Birmingham. The Coosa mine is located in an area that has been a past producer of graphite, utilizing a geology trend spanning tens of thousands of acres, known as the “Alabama Graphite Belt.” The State of Alabama remains a friendly business jurisdiction, exemplified by successfully securing a $1 billion commitment from Daimler Benz to build a lithium-ion battery factory near its automobile assembly plant in the state.
Christopher M. Jones, President and Chief Executive Officer of Westwater Resources, said, “We are issuing our business plan for Alabama Graphite to provide investors guidance on how we plan on moving the Coosa Project forward. We believe that graphite has an important strategic place in the global economy, as graphite continues to be a commodity in high demand as electric automobiles and the batteries that power them increase production. We are working with over 30 potential customers, several of which have qualification samples in hand as a first step towards potential sales; this plan outlines our anticipated pathway towards providing returns to investors over the intermediate to long-term.”
Mr. Jones added, “In summary, our Company’s broad base of manufacturing, mining, and processing expertise from graphite, base and precious metals to energy materials is our key competitive advantage. Over the last 40-plus years, members of the Westwater team have operated mining, processing, and manufacturing facilities ranging in size from small to more than a billion dollars in revenue and management believes they have the experience required to successfully execute this business plan.”
Major components of the business plan include constructing a processing facility that purifies readily available graphite concentrates to 99.95% pure carbon. The proposed construction is planned for 2020 based upon pilot-plant operating data developed in 2019 and using industry standard processes. Once the graphite is purified, the material is further processed into the three component products which provide graphite materials with enhanced conductivity performance for battery manufacturers: Purified Micronized Graphite (PMG), Delaminated Expanded Graphite (DEXDG), and Coated Spherical Purified Graphite (CSPG).
At the same time, the Company will be developing the Coosa Graphite mine (planned for start-up 2026) on its 40,000-plus-acre mineral-rights holdings that can serve as a hedge against future feedstock costs and provide in-house quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) for raw-material inputs.
To view the full AGC business plan, please go to www.westwaterresources.net.