Renascor validates HF-free graphite process at demonstration scale

Demonstration plant clears battery-grade purity test

Renascor Resources Limited (ASX:RNU) has produced purified spherical graphite with 99.97% carbon purity at its Adelaide demonstration plant, moving its hydrofluoric acid-free purification process beyond laboratory validation. The result is the clearest technical milestone yet for the company’s planned South Australian mine-to-battery-anode-material operation.

The graphite was produced during batch trials that ran through the plant’s integrated purification circuit over about five days. Samples collected at each stage indicated that the individual process units were operating in line with design expectations, according to Renascor.

Third-party graphite provides the first scale-up benchmark

The result came from third-party spherical graphite previously tested at laboratory scale, rather than graphite from Renascor’s Siviour deposit. That choice gave the company a benchmark for plant performance while preserving Siviour material for subsequent trials. Renascor said Siviour graphite had achieved higher purity levels than the third-party material in laboratory work, but that remains a laboratory result until the planned demonstration-plant tests are completed.

The milestone follows HF-free purification cost study, which estimated operating costs of about US$459 per tonne in 2026 dollars. Renascor says the combination of the process result and the cost estimate supports the potential for a competitive ex-China source of battery-grade graphite, although the company still needs longer operating campaigns to validate performance, reagent recycling and water recycling.

Siviour trials and multi-tonne campaigns remain ahead

Further batch trials are planned during the current quarter using both third-party and Siviour graphite. Renascor intends to use the work to refine operating parameters and produce samples for prospective offtake partners before progressing to multi-tonne trials involving extended continuous runs.

The demonstration plant, supported by a $5 million Australian Government grant, is designed to generate the operating data, cost validation and qualification material needed for commercial-scale development. Renascor says it has enough feedstock to support processing through the March 2027 quarter, while delays in securing additional material could affect activities after that point.

Technical milestone enters the financing process

Renascor says international battery-industry participants have visited the Siviour project and Adelaide plant as part of due diligence, and that demonstration-scale production will support customer qualification, offtake discussions and strategic partnership efforts. The company also has a conditionally approved $185 million loan facility from the Australian Government’s Critical Minerals Facility and reported approximately $94 million in cash at 30 June 2026.

Those figures do not amount to a fully financed commercial project. The next test is whether repeatable production from Siviour graphite can generate qualification material and convert technical validation into firm customer commitments and definitive funding arrangements.