Countdown to Graphite One: Restoring the US supply of a critical mineral.

• Author: Newman, Amy

The Kigluaik Mountains stretch 42 miles east to west along the Seward Peninsula just north of Nome. Grizzly bears and moose roam the area, its lakes are home to a unique subspecies of Arctic char, and it's the site of the Grand Union Glacier, the only active glacier in Western Alaska.

The mountains are also home to Graphite Creek, site of the largest known flake graphite deposit in the United States. Located 37 miles outside of Nome and 3 miles inland from Windy Cove, the deposit contains more than 8 million tonnes of graphite, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) US Mineral Deposit Database.

Vancouver, Canada-based tech company Graphite One hopes to make that deposit the linchpin of a three-pronged project that will increase the North American supply of graphite and reduce US dependence on foreign sources of the mineral.

"Our goal is to create the first dominant [graphite] supply chain in the history of the United States," Graphite One founder and CEO Anthony Huston said of the company's plans in 2020.

Graphite One isn't the first company to extract graphite from the hills of Nome, though it is the most ambitious. At the start of the 20th century, Minnesota couple Nicholas and Evinda Tweet came to Nome in search of gold, Huston says. They formed N.B. Tweet & Sons and acquired 176 mining claims spread across 23,680 acres. During the first and second World Wars, the company turned its attention to extracting graphite, which it sold to steel manufacturers in Seattle and San Francisco to aid the war effort.

Huston learned of thegraphitedeposit in 2012 and obtained permission from the Tweets' descendants to extract and test graphite from their claims to determine whether it could be used to produce lithium-ion batteries. After tests confirmed it could, Graphite One purchased 163 of the Tweets' original claims and leased the remaining 13.

Since then, the company has worked steadily to get the Graphite Creek project online and, despite some COVID-19 related setbacks, is on track for first production to begin in 2028.

Domestic Supply of a Critical Mineral

A naturally occurring form of crystalline carbon, graphite is soft and easily split, yet extremely heat resistant and nearly chemically inert. These properties suit a variety of practical, everyday uses. Graphite is a vital component in batteries that power laptop computers, LEDs, smartphones, and electric vehicles, as well as being used to make solar cells and nuclear reactors. Because of its versatility, it is consistently included on the USGS' annual list of minerals critical to the US economy and national security.

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