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Leading Edge Materials Announces Proposed Joint Venture Plans for Advanced Anode Materials Business with Sicona
Vancouver, October 6, 2021 – Leading Edge Materials Corp. (“Leading Edge Materials” or the “Company”) (TSXV: LEM) (Nasdaq First North: LEMSE) (OTCQB: LEMIF) (FR
About this update from Leading Edge Materials Corp.
[{"type":"text","content":" Vancouver, October 6, 2021 – Leading Edge Materials Corp. (“Leading Edge Materials” or the “Company”) (TSXV: LEM) (Nasdaq First North: LEMSE) (OTCQB: LEMIF) (FRA: 7FL) is pleased to announce that its 100% owned Swedish subsidiary Woxna Graphite AB (“Woxna”) has signed a non-binding Heads of Agreement (the “MOU”) with Sydney, Australia, based Sicona Battery Technologies Pty Ltd (“Sicona”). The MOU lays out the path for the establishment of a Sweden based 50/50 Joint Venture (the “JV”) targeting the production of advanced natural graphite and silicon-graphite-carbon composite active anode materials using natural graphite from the Woxna Graphite mine as feedstock to offer the European lithium-ion battery manufacturing industry a secure and sustainable supply of high-performance anode materials. The JV is a direct fit for the fully built and permitted Woxna Graphite mine in Sweden and plans for a vertically integrated production from mine to active anode materials utilizing a low carbon footprint thermal purification process, as recently reported in a Preliminary Economic Assessment study.(see press releases dated June 9, 2021 and July 26, 2021) The Company believes that the existing mine and developed downstream processes together with Sicona’s innovative technology offers the opportunity to deliver a secure and sustainable supply of high-performance battery materials for the European battery industry. Sicona is commercialising innovative silicon-graphite-carbon composite anode and binder technology and materials that have been developed over the last ten years at the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials at the University of Wollongong and now owned by Sicona (the “IP”). Sicona has reported that its current generation silicon-graphite-carbon composite materials deliver 50 to 100% higher capacity than conventional graphite anode materials. Sicona recently raised AU$3.7m from leading venture capital and private equity investors to accelerate pilot manufacturing and commercial deployment of Sicona’s innovative battery materials. Due to its improved storage capacity, silicon graphite composite anode materials attract higher selling prices, >US$15,000 per tonne1, compared with conventional graphite anode materials between US$7,000 and US$15,000 per tonne2. However, due to the higher capacity of silicon graphite composites t...