Tuesday 16 June 2026
China processes more than 95% of the world's battery-grade spherical graphite. In November 2025, Beijing temporarily suspended its export licensing requirements for artificial graphite anode materials and related processing equipment. That suspension expires in November 2026, and the Western supply chain has done little to change its dependence in the interim.
Classification and origin
Graphite is a naturally occurring crystalline form of carbon, classified as a critical mineral by Australia, the US, the EU, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. It is the single largest component by weight in a lithium-ion battery anode, typically comprising 50-60% of the anode mass.
Natural graphite occurs in three forms: flake, vein (lump), and amorphous. For battery applications, flake graphite is the primary feedstock. It is mined, then processed through a multi-stage chain involving crushing, flotation, purification, spheroidisation, and coating to produce purified spherical graphite (PSG) or coated spherical graphite (CSPG), the material that actually enters a battery cell.
The processing chain is where the concentration risk sits. Mining natural graphite is geologically straightforward in several countries. Processing it to battery-grade purity (99.95%+ carbon) at commercial scale is an industrial capability that China has built over decades and that virtually no other country has replicated.
Australian deposits and active programmes
Australia holds globally significant graphite resources, ranked among the top ten countries globally, yet has no active commercial mine production.
The Siviour Graphite Project on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, controlled by Renascor Resources (ASX: RNU), is one of the world's largest proven graphite reserves at 61.8 million tonnes grading 7% total graphitic carbon. The project has a completed definitive feasibility study, Major Project Status, a $185 million loan facility from Export Finance Australia, and is advancing a vertically integrated Battery Anode Material (BAM) operation that would combine mining with downstream PSG production on Australian soil.
Quantum Graphite (ASX: QGL) holds the Uley Graphite Project, also on the Eyre Peninsula, with ore reserves of 4.3 million tonnes at 11% TGC. Uley has full environmental approvals, existing infrastructure from prior operations, and a completed DFS. The project is development-ready pending funding, with a potential 12-year initial mine life.
In Western Australia, Green Critical Minerals (ASX: GCM) completed a pre-feasibility study for the McIntosh Graphite Project in 2025, with a final investment decision targeted for late 2026 and first production around 2029.
Other deposits at Munglinup, Springdale, and Campoona add to the resource base, but none is in production.
Why this matters
The graphite supply chain risk is structurally different from lithium, cobalt, or rare earths. In those commodities, the concentration risk is primarily in mining. In graphite, the mining is distributed across several countries, but the processing bottleneck is almost entirely Chinese. Even graphite mined in Mozambique, Madagascar, or Tanzania typically flows to China for processing into battery-grade material.
China's 2023 export licensing requirements for graphite were the first signal. The December 2024 tightening, which added stricter end-user reviews for US-bound exports, was the second. The October 2025 expansion to cover artificial graphite anode materials, processing equipment, and related technologies was the third. The temporary suspension that followed was a tactical pause, not a strategic retreat.
When the suspension expires in November 2026, any reinstatement of licensing requirements would immediately affect global anode material supply chains. The lead time to build alternative processing capacity outside China is measured in years, not months.
The talent demand link
Bringing Australian graphite projects from approved to operational requires a workforce that does not yet exist at scale in this commodity. Graphite mining itself draws on standard open-pit expertise, but the downstream processing chain, from flotation through spheroidisation and purification, requires metallurgists and process engineers with specialised experience that is scarce globally and nearly absent in Australia.
The exploration and development phase of these projects is already generating field geology and technician demand. As projects like Siviour move toward construction, the workforce requirement expands from exploration teams to include process plant commissioning, mine planning, and operational geology roles. The constraint is not the rock. The constraint is having the right people ready when the projects need them.
At Norwest Exploration and Mining Services, we specialise in rapid deployment of geologists and field technicians into active programmes across Australia, including the critical minerals projects that are moving from study phase into production timelines.
The critical minerals list keeps growing. Whether Australian production can keep pace with the list, or whether the reserves stay in the ground while the processing stays in China, depends on decisions being made in the next twelve months.