SYDNEY -- A mineral vital to electric vehicle batteries is no longer under China's near-exclusive control, as Australian mines challenge their Chinese counterparts in the extraction and processing of graphite.
Australia's Syrah Resources fired up a graphite processing facility this month in the U.S. state of Louisiana to turn the mineral mined in Mozambique into the precursor for EV battery anodes. The long production chain -- from Africa to North America then on to automakers worldwide -- aims to provide "an option for geographic diversification," says Syrah.
