Feb. 16, 2022 - Syrah Resources CEO Shaun Verner announced that the company is investing $176 million to expand its Syrah Technologies graphite processing facility in central Louisiana, giving the state a supply-chain foothold in the rapidly expanding market for electric vehicle components produced in the United States.

The company will add 180,000 square feet of building and processing space to its existing 50,000 square-foot facility, enough to install equipment and systems for processing natural graphite into active anode material (AAM) used in lithium-ion batteries for the electric vehicle industry. The expansion announcement comes on the heels of a December 2021 offtake agreement with Tesla Inc. to supply natural graphite AAM for use in batteries.

The Vidalia expansion, which will allow for the annual production of an estimated 11,250 tonnes of AAM, is central to Syrah’s strategy to become a large-scale vertically integrated natural graphite AAM supply option for the growing U.S. battery supply chain and electric vehicle market.

The company expects construction on the AAM facility expansion to begin in the first quarter of 2022, with hiring for the new jobs to commence around mid-year. Construction is projected to be completed in mid-2023, with AAM production beginning in the third quarter of 2023.