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Leading Edge Materials (TSXV:LEM) releases preliminary Life Cycle Assessment results

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TSXV:LEM
21 June 2021 13:15 (EDT)

Leading Edge Materials (LEM) is releasing preliminary Life Cycle Assessment results for its Woxna Graphite anode project.

On December 10, 2020, Leading Edge had commissioned Minviro Ltd., a globally recognized LCA consultancy, to build an LCA model and deliver a report for the planned vertically integrated production of natural graphite anode material in Sweden as described in Leading Edge’s recently announced Preliminary Economic Assessment results.

The LCA results show that the production of 1 tonne of natural graphite anode material from natural graphite extracted at the Woxna Graphite mine is forecast to have an impact of 1.8 tonnes CO2 eq.

Minviro applied the same methodology in the report to evaluate current Chinese natural and synthetic graphite anode material, with Woxna CSPG demonstrating an 85 per cent to 90 per cent lower impact than the current market-dominant Chinese alternatives.

A significant factor influencing the dramatically reduced carbon footprint for Woxna Graphite is the access to hydropower as the main electricity source.

Filip Kozlowski, CEO states,

“I am excited to share these results on the potential dramatic reduced carbon footprint of Woxna Graphite anode material compared with current Chinese alternatives that dominate the supply today.”

It is worth noting that 62.5 per cent of the 1.8 tonnes CO2 eq. for Woxna Graphite was due to the inherited carbon footprint from the production of argon and nitrogen gases used in the processes.

Leading Edge has been in contact with a local supplier of these gasses which offer climate-neutral alternatives.

This offers a future potential to further minimize the carbon footprint of Woxna Graphite compared with current existing suppliers when these lower impact alternatives can be incorporated.

The LCA study will now be sent out for external review to an independent panel of experts after which final results will be confirmed.

Once the report is finalized the Company will make the report available for any interested parties, especially interested potential customers that have a clear strategy to minimize carbon footprint along their value chains.

The goal of the LCA was to quantify environmental impacts addressed through different impact categories for the production of coated spherical purified graphite produced from natural graphite extracted at the Woxna Graphite mine.

Leading Edge Materials is a Canadian public company focused on developing a portfolio of critical raw material projects located in the European Union. 

Minviro is a London-based and globally recognized consultancy and technology company specialized in carrying out life cycle assessments in the technology metal space.

Leading Edge Materials (LEM) is in the grey and is trading at C$0.26 at 11:16 am ET.

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