Private Canadian graphite company Global Battery Materials Corp is acquiring TSX-listed microcap Lomiko Metals for circa-C$11 million in a deal aimed at combining Lomiko’s large La Loutre graphite project in southern Quebec with GBMC’s anode processing technology and other assets.
GBMC says its technology has been validated at its pilot plant in South Korea and it is providing purified graphite concentrate samples from its laboratory facility in Mont Laurier, Quebec, for qualification by potential customers in North America.
Lomiko recently put out a prefeasibility study on a proposed C$504.5 million graphite mining and processing project at La Loutre in southern Quebec which could produce about 80,000 tonnes per annum of graphite concentrate at an average 4.79% Cg (graphitic carbon) grade over 28 years.
“Lomiko brings a portfolio of natural graphite assets that strengthen our North American footprint and deliver the scale to support a rapidly growing anode materials market,” GBMC CEO Eric Miller said.
“Once this transaction is approved we plan to engage with local rightholders and stakeholders as part of a structured review of the La Loutre graphite project to determine next steps.
“We look forward to diversifying the critical minerals that power our proprietary anode processing technology as we scale production across North America and unlock the full potential of our platform.”
GBMC has been targeting a late-2027 restart of the past-producing (1991-1994) Kearney graphite mine in Ontario to feed an integrated battery anode supply chain built around its “patented [graphite] shaping and purification technologies” developed in South Korea.
It says its “mature pilot production and R&D facility” north of Seoul can produce high-performance anode materials including spherical purified graphite and coated spherical purified graphite for energy storage applications.
Its Mont Laurier lab produces purified graphite concentrate.
