The BGV Group Management team presented to the European business community its graphite and rare earth projects, which it implements in Ukraine. The presentation took place as part of the Investment Day of Ukraine at the annual European event Raw Materials Week, which takes place in Brussels from November 14 to 18.

Member of the Board of Directors of the BGV Investment Group, Serhii Voitsekhovskyi, emphasized Ukraine’s raw material potential and BGV Group Management projects in particular. Thus, the investment group’s enterprises operate in 5 regions on 13 deposits, among which rare earth and graphite projects—the Balakhivske deposit in the Kirovohrad region, the Zavalivske deposit in the Odesa region, as well as the Perzhanske and Yastrebetske deposits in the Zhytomyr region—take the top place.

“Graphite is recognized as a strategic mineral both in America and Europe. In 2023, Europe will need 90,000 tons of spherical graphite to provide raw materials to manufacture lithium-ion batteries. We see that this need will only grow in the future. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, the projects announced in Europe until 2031 will require about 20 million tons of graphite ore annually. And cooperation with Ukraine in terms of providing the largest industrial capacities has several competitive advantages, both in terms of price, quality of products, and their stocks, and in terms of logistical advantages compared to current producing countries. Today, spherical graphite is produced in China, Japan, and South Korea. At the same time, the main industrial centers that need graphite are located in Europe,” said Serhii Voitsekhovskyi.

Serhii presented BGV Group Management as the leading Ukrainian partner in graphite mining, emphasizing a number of the company’s advantages:

    • BGV owns mining permits for graphite ore deposits with proven reserves and large prospective areas: more than 180 million tons of explored reserves.

    • Projects are located in mining regions with excellent infrastructure, significantly simplifying logistics issues.

    • Technological testing and pilot tests performed by the specialized European research center ANZAPLAN confirmed the high quality of the products: the performance of spherical graphite samples of BGV enterprises for lithium-ion batteries is higher than the average market indicators and, according to specific characteristics, is close to the theoretical maximum.

According to Serhii Voitsekhovskyi, the total project capacity of the production complex in Ukraine, on which the BGV investment group is working, will be 100,000 tons of high-quality graphite concentrate per year and 38,000 tons of spherical graphite for lithium-ion batteries, which will cover a significant part of the needs of the EU market. The company is currently conducting Phase 2 pilot trials of the concentrator, is finalizing a preliminary feasibility study (PFS), and will be ready to present its results to investors in early 2023 formally.

At the end of the speech, Serhii emphasized that BGV Group Management is focused on international cooperation and European standards. Therefore, in addition to Ukraine’s legislation, the Group’s enterprises are guided by the EU Directives on the environmental performance of factories and deposits in their work. The industrial activities of the companies comply with 8 EU Directives, which regulate the impact on the environment, public access to environmental information, emissions, waste, preservation of flora and fauna, etc. BGV enterprises are among the first in Ukraine to use modern environmentally friendly technologies, for example, the method of cleaning spherical graphite without using harmful acids.

Reference:

Raw Materials Week is the EU’s key annual event for the mining industry, designed to promote contacts between Ukrainian and European companies and European credit and financial institutions. In 2022, the Forum is taking place entirely under the auspices of the European Commission. The organizers of the Forum are the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs of the European Commission (DG GROW), the European Raw Materials Association (ERMA) together with Ukraine’s State Geology and Subsoil Service with the support of Ukraine’s Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources.