CSIRO carried out the tests at Archer’s Campoona project on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.
Archer’s natural graphite at Campoona met anode standards for use as in the existing generation lithium-ion batteries.
Samples were drawn from milling and floatation of a composite parcel of graphite mineralisation at the deposit, creating a bulk sample which represents the early years of mining at Campoona.
The CSIRO then prepared battery electrodes from Campoona natural graphite and other commercially available graphite powders, which were used to construct coin cells in a half-cell configuration.
Archer said it will now commission the CSIRO to test the Campoona ultra-pure graphite at several particle size distributions to confirm expectations.
The company expects to produce 10,000 tonnes of battery-grade product from Campoona Shaft each year, over a mine life of 13 years.
Archer Exploration managing director Gerard Anderson said: "Battery grade graphite sells at a substantial premium to traditional graphite and this will further underpin the profitability of our planned graphite mining operations on Eyre Peninsula.
"The controllable particle size of Archer’s natural product is also expected to enable greater utilisation of our Campoona graphite."
