Westwater Resources Applauds the President’s Executive Order on America’s Supply Chains
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Westwater Resources said it applauds the President’s Executive Order signed on February 24, 2021, that seeks to provide for more resilient supply chains to revitalize and rebuild domestic manufacturing capacity and maintain America’s competitive edge in research and development.
The President’s declaration asks the Secretary of Energy, as part of a larger study involving several branches of the U.S. government, to submit a report within 100 days identifying risks to the supply chain for high-capacity batteries including those that power electric vehicles. This effort could be important to Westwater’s plans to develop its battery graphite business in the United States. The new order builds upon the prior Administration’s Executive Order issued on September 30, 2020, related to critical minerals.
The U.S. is 100 perent dependent on imports for battery-grade graphite, which is currently the primary anode material in the Lithium-Ion batteries that power smartphones, laptops, electric vehicles, and store power generated from intermittent renewable energy sources. Westwater’s Coosa Graphite Deposit is located in Alabama and the company plans to develop the deposit to supply natural flake graphite for beneficiation into battery-grade graphite for all types of batteries.
“The President’s Executive Order could open up new avenues for financing and permitting for our project — this is good news for Westwater Resources and the Coosa Graphite Project,” said Christopher M. Jones, president and chief executive officer of Westwater.
Graphite is specifically named as one of the critical minerals in which the U.S. is heavily dependent on China for its supply.
Westwater is uniquely positioned to benefit from the action the U.S. government is taking to ensure America and its technology manufacturers can rely on a safe and secure source of graphite to power our next generation of power and technology needs. The action by the President orders the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy to coordinate the executive branch actions necessary to implement the order with the Office of Science and Technology, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Energy and the Secretary of the Interior, among other agencies, to provide reports within 100 days on risks to the supply chain, work completed thus far since Executive Order 13952 (signed September 30, 2020) and possible actions the Administration might take to reduce these risks.
Westwater will work to support the efforts by the relevant agencies in the U.S. government and to ensure that they remain aware of the importance of battery-grade graphite, its importance to the nation’s security, and how the Coosa Graphite Project fits into the critical minerals-equation.
About Westwater Resources
Westwater Resources is focused on developing battery-grade graphite products. The company’s battery-materials projects include the Coosa Graphite Project — the most advanced natural flake graphite project in the contiguous United States — and the associated Coosa Graphite Deposit located across 41,900 acres (~17,000 hectares) in east-central Alabama.
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