Grafintec’s Strategy
Grafintec’s ambition is to create a sustainable value chain in Finland from high-quality natural flake graphite resources to downstream anode material production, leveraging Finland’s natural resources, including available renewable power, and targeting net zero CO2 emissions across the supply chain. The development of downstream capabilities is part of Grafintec’s strategy and the Company believes that partnerships with other companies are a key enabler to reduce development risk and get to market faster.
Having discovered one of Europe’s largest natural flake graphite deposits and with the establishment of the graphite anode materials plant (“GAMP”) in the GigaVaasa area, Grafintec is well positioned to support the future supply chain requirements for graphite anode material in the bourgeoning lithium-ion battery sector.
Fight against the climate change
The fight against climate change requires implementation of new technologies. The aim of Grafintec Oy is to test and to optimize new environmentally friendly and cost-effective processes to convert graphite material into high-quality anode material for lithium-ion batteries without using hazardous chemicals. The manufacturing of anode material in Finland would support Finland’s vision to be a frontrunner in the battery and electrification cluster in the world in 2025. Graphite is a raw material needed for the production of lithium-ion batteries and for cleantech solutions. Batteries are used among other things for the needs of expanding electric motoring, and currently, the focus of battery manufacturing is in Asia.
Vision
Grafintec’s growth vision is to deliver a Finnish graphite-based supply chain, that is sustainable, maximises resource conversion to final products, is low cost and delivers a strong economic value proposition to the country. To achieve this, Grafintec is currently establishing a facility for processing graphite, with the final product primarily tailored for anode manufacturing. This product is technically referred to as coated spherical graphite, which increases a battery’s competitiveness in terms of performance and cost.
Sustainable graphite production and refining could be an important part of the Finnish mineral cluster in the future. When a Finnish battery cluster is created and more attention is paid to environmental issues, it will provide Finland excellent opportunities to develop sustainable mineral exploration and mining activities for the entire value chain pertaining to batteries.
Rasmus Blomqvist
Managing Director, Grafintec Oy
Mr. Blomqvist, the founder of Grafintec, joined Beowulf in January 2016. Mr. Blomqvist has been working in exploration and mining geology for over 20 years and holds an MSc in Geology and Mineralogy from Åbo Akademi University, Turku Finland, and an Executive MBA from Aalto University Executive Education, Helsinki Finland.
Since 2012, Mr. Blomqvist has been exploring for flake graphite within the Fennoscandian shield and is one of the most experienced graphite geologists in the Nordic region. He has also over the years gained an extensive knowledge of the graphite anode materials value-chain. Prior to Grafintec, Mr. Blomqvist was Chief Geologist for Nussir ASA, managing its exploration team and achieving significant exploration success for the company.
Prior to Nussir, Mr. Blomqvist worked as an independent consultant for several international mining companies including Mawson Resources, Tasman Metals and Agnico Eagle and has experience in graphite, gold, base metals and iron ore, within the Nordic region.
Mr Blomqvist is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (“MAusIMM”).
Sauli Raunio
Exploration Geologist, Grafintec Oy
Mr. Raunio was appointed Exploration Geologist for Grafintec in July 2016. Mr. Raunio works on graphite project development and on different mineral exploration projects across Beowulf’s other subsidiary businesses in Finland and Sweden. He was previously a Research and Project Assistant at Åbo Akademi University before he joined Grafintec.
Mr. Raunio graduated in 2015. He has a Master’s Degree in Geology from Åbo Akademi University. His thesis title was ”Quality determination of flake graphite in Finland”. He also has a Batchelor’s Degree in Geology from Åbo Akademi University. His thesis title was ”Age determination of a fault zone in Olkiluoto”.
Grafintec Oy is member of the European Battery Alliance network (“EBA250”). The European Commission launched the European Battery Alliance in October 2017 to make Europe a global leader in sustainable battery production and use. The annual market value is estimated at €250 billion from 2025 onwards. For Europe, the establishment of a complete domestic battery value chain is imperative for a clean energy transition and a competitive industry.