Northern Graphite Corporation and Rain Carbon Canada, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rain Carbon, have announced that their consortium is receiving funding support up to C$860,000 (€530,000) under the Canada–Germany Collaborative Industrial Research and Development Program.

The 24-month project will have a total cost of $2.2 million and will focus on transforming low-value natural graphite fine fractions byproduct into high-performance, battery-grade anode material (BAM) and is jointly supported through advisory services and funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) through its Central Innovation Program for small and mid-size companies (ZIM).

Partners under the initiative - NGC Battery Materials GmbH (NGCBM), Northern’s Germany-based battery materials unit, and RAINCA - aim to increase milling and shaping yield by upcycling byproduct fine fractions, reducing waste and minimizing the need for additional mining.

“With a shared goal of building a robust supply chain from mine-to-battery, this collaboration combines the upstream strengths of our mining and graphite processing operations with RAIN’s unmatched carbon science expertise to deliver advanced solutions for a clean energy future,” said Northern Chief Executive Officer Hugues Jacquemin.

The project will leverage the strengths of both partners, with Northern supplying natural graphite feedstock sourced from its operations in Canada and Namibia, and applying advanced sizing, shaping, and purification techniques to produce highly uniform, battery-grade feedstock particles.

RAIN will contribute advanced conversion processes and its proprietary LIONCOAT carbon coating technology, while leading electrochemical performance testing to ensure the final materials meet the highest global standards.

The efforts will be anchored by RAIN’s Technology Innovation Center for Energy Storage Materials in Hamilton, Ontario, which houses a demonstration plant for material conversion and coating at pilot-scale, an advanced analytical lab for evaluating the physicochemical properties of powder materials, and an application lab dedicated to battery cell fabrication and performance assessment.

“This project aims to significantly reduce the carbon footprint per kilogram of battery material by introducing processes that result in less waste from the milling cycle and utilize more of the graphite that we mine,” said Northern Chief Product Officer Dr. Moritz Hantel. “By improving the conversion rate of flake graphite into battery anode material, we align with the principles of the circular economy, reducing industrial waste and strengthening the consortium's leadership in the innovation of sustainable battery materials.”

For RAIN, the initiative acts as a strategic catalyst that accelerates product development, shortens time-to-market cycles, and enhances the company’s technical capabilities while sharpening its competitive advantage in processing battery-grade carbon precursor materials under the LIONCOAT brand.

“This partnership not only enhances RAIN’s capabilities in processing battery-grade carbon precursor materials but also enables NGCBM to expand its value chain beyond raw material extraction and processing, advancing into the production of high-value battery materials,” said RAIN President, Gerard Sweeney.

“Together, both organizations are well-positioned to meet the stringent quality standards of the highly competitive energy storage market.”