SYDNEY: Australian miner Lithium Energy Ltd (ASX:LEL) said on Thursday it has acquired the Mt Dromedary graphite project in Queensland for $2 million, consolidating a major high-grade resource as it studies building a battery anode material (BAM) plant.
The acquisition from battery technology company NOVONIX Ltd (ASX:NVX) gives Lithium Energy 100% ownership of three adjacent projects – Burke, Corella, and now Mt Dromedary – creating a combined resource of 4.42 million tonnes of contained graphite.
The move replaces a previously proposed plan to spin out the graphite assets into a separate company, Axon Graphite, via an initial public offering, which was shelved due to market conditions.
“The consolidation of the adjacent high-quality Burke and Mt Dromedary graphite deposits will create a world-class inventory,” said Lithium Energy Executive Chairman William Johnson. “We expect significant operational synergies and economies of scale.”
The key Burke and Mt Dromedary deposits boast an average grade exceeding 14% Total Graphitic Carbon (TGC), which the company said is significantly higher than most global peers. The mineralisation remains open, with infill drilling planned for the fourth quarter of 2025 to potentially expand the resource.
Lithium Energy outlined a strategy to develop a vertically integrated BAM business in Queensland. The plan involves mining graphite to produce a flake concentrate on-site, which would then be shipped to a dedicated facility for processing into spherical purified graphite (SPG), a key component for lithium-ion battery anodes.
The company said it will now review funding strategies for the BAM project and advance work programs, including building a pilot plant to produce sample materials for customer qualification.