Beowulf subsidiary agrees terms for Finland joint venture

Mineral explorer and developer Beowulf announced on Monday that its wholly-owned Finnish subsidiary Grafintec and Epsilon Advanced Materials, a subsidiary of Epsilon Carbon, have signed a joint venture heads of terms for the establishment of an anode materials production facility to be located in Finland.

The AIM-traded firm said it intended for the proposed plant to supply battery and cell manufacturing companies in Europe, complementing Epsilon’s growing anode materials business in India.

It said the plant would be built in two phases, with the first phase to have a production capacity of 10,000 tonnes per annum, and the second to add 40,000 tonnes per annum, taking overall plant capacity to 50,000 tonnes of anode material each year.

During summer this year, Grafintec was granted funding by Business Finland as part of the ‘BATCircle2.0’ consortium.

Beowulf described BATCircle2.0 as a “key project” in Business Finland`s ‘Smart Mobility’ and ‘Batteries from Finland’ programmes.

As a first step, the grant funding would be used by Grafintec to develop a bankable feasibility study for the plant in Finland, including a detailed strategic marketing and commercialisation plan, based on a comparable plant being developed by Epsilon Advanced Materials in India.

Under the joint ventrue, Grafintec, which would own 49% of the joint venture, and Epsilon Advanced Materials which would own the remaining 51%, would work on the study to create a “sustainable value chain” in Finland from natural flake graphite resources to anode materials production.

It said that would leverage renewable power, target net zero carbon dioxide across the supply chain, and benefit from the “significant support” of Business Finland and collaboration within the Finnish Battery Cluster.

“Since March this year, we have had a productive working relationship with Epsilon Advanced Materials,” said chief executive officer Kurt Budge.

“From signing the memorandum of understanding, to developing ideas through the summer, and my visit to India in September which accelerated our plans.”

Budge said that, with the financial support of Business Finland under BATCircle2.0 and signing the heads of terms with Epsilon, Beowulf was looking forward to a “busy start” to 2022.

“In Epsilon Advanced Materials, we have found a partner that shares our sustainability values and we are looking forward to an exciting future ahead as we seek to establish a Finnish anode materials supply chain.”

At 1434 GMT, shares in Beowulf Mining were down 18.46% at 7.95p.