Inside the Investment Case: International Graphite

International Graphite explores its role in the critical minerals supply chain, outlining its strategy, market positioning and why graphite demand is creating a compelling investment opportunity.

Featuring: Aidan Nania, Executive Director International Graphite

Guest Host: Lyndsay Malchuk, Apaton Media.

Recorded live at 121 Mining Investment London, May 2026.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're listening to the ASTE Podcast, where mining meets capital, powered by one-to-one mining investment. Today we are coming live from our event in London. Please note, this podcast is for information only and isn't financial advice or recommendation to invest. As always, the views you'll hear are those of the speakers.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Welcome back to Inside the Investment Case. I'm Lindsay Melchak, your guest host, coming to you from the floor of the One-to-1 Mining Conference right here in London. Now, here's the question investors should be asking themselves right now. As the world races towards electrification, AI infrastructure, battery storage, and even supply chain security, who actually controls the materials powering it all? Because graphite may not grab the headlines like gold or copper, but without it, the energy transition stalls. And joining me right now is a company positioning itself right in the middle of that global conversation. I'm sitting down with International Graphite Executive Director Aidan Nania. It's so great to have you. And did I say your name right?

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Yeah, you got it right. Yeah, lovely to meet you, Lindsay.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Perfect. So how's the show been?

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Uh it's been great. We've got uh 24 meetings over two days. So we've got through the first day. Went very well.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Oh, that's a busy, busy time here. That's just the first day.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Wow. Well, you know, I want to kick it off because I know that we don't have a lot of time. There are some people who don't quite know about your company. So why don't you give us sort of the high level out of elevator pitch on what your company does?

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Yeah, sure. Um, so uh it's in the name International Graphite. We're focused on um uh developing uh graphite projects. Um we're listed on the ASX and we have a secondary listing on the uh Frankfurt Exchange.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Okay. Now you also have two processing plants. Can you go into that?

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yeah, so we have we have two projects um that will be moving forward into development this year. Um one is in Collie, which is south of Perth in Western Australia, okay, where we'll be uh producing micronized graphite for the Asia Pacific market. Um we've been well supported by the Australian government there, um, federally and by the state government and have an existing RD and demonstration plant there. So we'll be building that out uh to commercial scale. Um and then the second project that we're focused on is in Porto Meghera in Venice. So we announced a joint venture with um Italian global chemical producer Alchemia earlier in the year. And so we're moving that forward at pace as well.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Wow. I mean, what those are two great places to be, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Now, when investors look at the investment case today, uh tell us what they're seeing and really actually what they may be missing still.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Um I I think as a as a company we're focused on um producing industrial products. So um those projects are characterized by quite low capex. Um and uh they're easier to permit than um larger scale uh projects such as Anode projects. Uh so compressed time to market, low cost, um, something that for a company of our size, we're confident that we can execute on.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Oh, so great to hear. Now, there are with everything, there are some major catalysts that we hit, and there's some major challenges. So why don't you tell us, you know, this past year some of those catalysts that you did hit, and then we'll flip over to, you know, the challenges that you meet and how you're navigating through that.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Sure. Um, so in in terms of catalysts uh at our COLI project to begin with, um, you know, we've been working there for a long time. So really we're down to the final permitting stage, uh, which we expect in the next couple of weeks. Um, so we've got all our building designs ready and uh we're ready to build there. Um so we'll produce annually about three to four thousand tons of micronized graphite from that project. Um and then the second major catalyst um for us has been the partnership with Alchemia. So not only are they uh a global chemical producer, but they're also focused on graphite. They're building graphite purification at site, um, which will be operational uh this summer, uh European summer. Um and together we're building a joint venture processing facility so for to produce industrial graphite projects. Um it's located at the industrial port of Venice. We're able to import concentrates from different supply sources, purify them, um, process them further, and then ship them to clients. So uh very exciting for us.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Very exciting. Yeah. So, you know, we hear so much about the gold space and the copper space and the silver space, but we don't get a chance to actually sit and hear a lot about the graphite space. Can you give us a little bit of education around that?

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Um what's it used for? And and you know, what's what's uh what's the demand for it, we'll say.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Traditionally, uh the demand has been in uh the refractory sector. So going into steel production has been the main sort of um, you know, volume market in the graphite sector. Um, but increasingly that has turned with the um the EV evolution to um it's it's brought a lot of focus on graphite's role in batteries, um uh specifically on the anode side of a of a battery. So that is a significant growing market. Um as a company, we are focused on specialty industrial products, um, such as micronized graphite, which goes into lubricants, for example, and expandable graphite, which goes into insulation and and other products.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

There's just so much more education that's needed around this industry. And you know, there are probably some investors who who want to learn a little bit more. So if you were to sit with an investor who knows, you know, a little bit, but what would be some advice you would give them in this space?

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Um, I think that the best place to start is to speak to people that have been involved in the market commercially, uh, that are experts in the in the sector. Um so to, you know, seek out those people um and uh and really learn from them. So we we benefit uh with our company and team um of having uh a lot of uh key people that have hands-on experience in you know operational graphite mines and processing facilities and um so very a lot of experience, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Tell me about your management team.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Management team, so um Andrew Warland is our CEO um and managing director of International Graphite. Um he uh is uh very experienced executive in the natural resources sector, um, but has been with International Graphite since it's listing. Uh our chairman Phil Hearst is one of um Australia's most highly regarded process engineers. Um and uh together with our CTO and director David Pars, uh they've done feasibilities on uh uh most of the listed graphite projects and um including for large, large corporates like Aramco and Martin. Uh consultant in Christoph Frey, um, who's the managing director of Pro Graphite. Christoph was a technical director for AMG Graphite, one of uh the very well-known um uh graphite companies uh here in Europe. Uh he's worked all over the world. We have partnerships with um Hensen Graphite and Carbon, who are a major graphite producer um out of China. They're uh a technical partner of ours, uh LNS Group out of Norway, one of um Norway's largest mine contractors and mine owners. And Al Kenya, uh also very experienced in in graphite, especially in purification. So we've got a um a management team and then consortium of partners that cover the you know graphite from upstream all the way down to to downstream.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

Yeah, you have a strong team behind you.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

Let's let's look forward. So if we were sitting here maybe 12, 24 months from now, what would be a headline that you'd want to talk about?

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Uh well, for us, we we move into moving into now into execution phase. So it's building out uh our processing facilities at uh at Collie in Western Australia and Porto Magera. So um second half of 2027, we aim to be in production, supplying customers from two sites uh to serve Asia Pacific and European markets.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

Well, I like that headline. I need to have you back, so we'll talk about that too. Thank you so much for sitting with us.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

My pleasure.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Okay. Well, I've been joined by Aidan Nanius, Executive Director of International Graphite here at the One-to-One Mining Investment Conference in London. The company trades on the Australian Securities Exchange under the symbol IG6. And for more information, head over to internationalgraphic.com. I'm Lindsay Malchuk, and this has been the Investment Case right here in London. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

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