File / The Outlook
Westwater Resources subsidiary Alabama Graphite's Coosa Project site is located on a 42,000-acre mineral rights package southwest of Weogufka.
Westwater Resources may be the first Coosa graphite miners of this century, but they didn't set out blindly with a hammer and pick. A quick Alabama records search reveals dozens of graphite-related LLCs registered during the first and second world wars, when the disruption of global shipping routes forced the U.S. to source its own minerals.
As such, now that graphite — a key component of electric vehicle batteries — is back in demand, it didn't take Westwater to tip off prospectors about Coosa County's graphite.
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File / The OutlookÂ
Last month Westwater Resources subsidiary Alabama Graphite Products announced Kellyton as the location of its $80 million graphite processing plant, which will open by 2023. The company doesn't plan on mining its own Coosa County graphite until 2028; in the meantime, it will import feedstock and process it.Â
Jake Arthur
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Siri Hedreen / The Outlook
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