The purpose of this new facility will be to continue development and commercialization of Volt Carbon’s patent pending air classifier which will be utilized for graphite separation from ore. The facility will house machinery to crush ore into feedstock for air classifier trials. Initially the main equipment will include primary and secondary crushing and 2 air classifiers dedicated for testing of various ore bodies.
As the facility has a small footprint of only 2200 sq ft, it is considered a “microfactory”. The company views this facility as a small factory for producing small batch runs of graphite flakes intended to test out and optimize the Company’s proprietary techniques. The microfactory’s main advantage is to save a substantial amount of space, energy, materials, time, and upfront capital to further develop its product.
Volt Carbon’s air classification system is designed to increase the head grade of graphite prior to downstream processing in wet circuits. This process has the potential to substantially save on Equipment CAPEX and recurring costs. Volt Carbon believes that air classification is an environmentally responsible approach to liberating graphite flakes from ore in a manner that reduces water usage and reagents.
Bill Pfaffenberger, (former) CEO, commented: “We are very excited that the commissioning of this facility is well underway and will be ready for small batch sample runs of graphite ore in Q1 2023. The new, low cost, facility will enable Volt Carbon to begin to optimize the air classifiers for graphite extraction of various mineral deposits from potential customers. Graphite is recognized as a critical mineral by governments in North America and Europe and it use is essential to many industries including renewable energy.”
590 Hanlon Drive, Guelph Ontario is the home of Solid Ultrabattery’s research and development facility. The company is building and testing solid electrolyte batteries from this facility and started the first phase of prototype battery fabrication.
The team at Volt Carbon Technologies remains highly focused on development and commercialization of solid state lithium metal batteries consisting of solid electrolytes that exhibit high ionic conductivity. Solid Ultrabattery currently holds two key patents for solid electrolyte battery technology and is currently preparing further intellectual property submissions to ensure its proprietary methods and formulations are protected. This technology will continue to result in improved energy performance and safety in the next generation of lithium batteries to reach commercialization.
The R&D equipment is designed to prepare commercial samples and production runs of any raw materials that use floatation in the milling procedure. Primarily the facility is set up for graphite.
The main reason for the equipment is the upgrading to high tech applications as example lithium-ion battery anodes, solar panel cells, etc. The Company is always interested in hearing from companies working on the cathode side (+) of energy storage that would be interested in collaborating on joint development. The main processing circuits:
Photos are from old plant. New photos will be taken of new plant as they become available.