The BGV Group Management team presented its Ukrainian graphite and rare earth projects to the European business community. The presentation took place as part of the Investment Day of Ukraine at the European annual event Raw Materials Week, held in Brussels on November 14 to 18.The BGV Group Management team presented their graphite and rare earth projects, which are being implemented in Ukraine, to the European business community. The presentation took place during Ukraine Investment Day at the pan-European annual event Raw Materials Week, held in Brussels from November 14 to 18.

Serhii Voitsekhovskyi, Member of the Board of the BGV Investment Group emphasized Ukraine’s raw material potential and BGV Group Management projects in particular. The investment group’s companies operate in 13 deposits across 5 regions of Ukraine, with rare earth and graphite projects at the forefront, namely the Balakhivka deposit in the Kirovohrad region, the Zavaliv deposit in the Odesa region, and the Perzhansk and Yastrebetske deposits in the Zhytomyr region.

“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 for the production of lithium-ion batteries. We see that this demand will only grow in the future. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, the projects announced in Europe for 2031 will require about 20 million tonnes of graphite ore annually. And cooperation with Ukraine in terms of supplying major industrial facilities offers a number of competitive advantages — both in terms of price, product quality and their reserves, and in terms of logistical advantages compared to current producing countries. Today, spherical graphite is produced in China, Japan, and South Korea. Whilst the main industrial centres that need graphite are located in Europe,” said Serhii Voitsekhovskyi.

Serhii presented BGV Group Management as the main Ukrainian partner in graphite mining, and emphasised a number of the benefits offered by the company:

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

The projects are located in the mining regions with excellent infrastructure, which greatly simplifies logistical issues.

Technological testing and pilot tests performed by the specialised European research centre ANZAPLAN confirmed the high quality of our products: the performance of spherical graphite samples of BGV enterprises for lithium-ion batteries is higher than the marketaverage indicators and, according to certain characteristics, is close to the theoretical maximum.

According to Serhii Voitsekhovskyi, the full design capacity of the production complex in Ukraine, which is being worked on by the BGV investment group, will be 100,000 tonnes of high-quality graphite concentrate per year and 38,000 tonnes of spherical graphite for lithium-ion batteries, which will cover a significant portion of EU demand.

The company is currently conducting the 2nd stage of concentration plant pilot tests and finalising the preliminary feasibility study (PFS) and it will be ready to officially present its results to investors in early 2023.

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