Volt Resources (ASX:VRC) said that it started ultra-high purity graphite production trials to achieve 99.95% purity at its 70%-owned Zavalievsky graphite project in Ukraine, and they are likely to continue until late 2025, according to a Tuesday Australian bourse filing.
The trials are using Volt's new reactor using patent-pending technology following the successful completion of bench scale test work to meet lithium-ion battery makers' requirements for impurity levels below 500 parts per million.
Zavalievsky graphite was recognized as a "strategic" asset in 2023 in the European Raw Materials Alliance Investment Pipeline, underscoring its potential to supply a material quantity of Europe's projected graphite needs by 2030.
Production at the project was over 800 tonnes of graphite, exceeding a target of 550 tonnes, during the quarter ended December 2024, the filing said.