POSCO International Corp. said Monday it has signed two initial agreements with a Canadian and an Australian mining company for the sourcing of a key secondary battery material from Africa.

Under the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Canada’s NextSource Materials Inc., POSCO International will co-invest in Molo graphite mining operated by the Canadian partner in Madagascar, the general trading unit under POSCO Holdings Inc. said in a release.

The initial agreement is expected to help POSCO International secure 30,000 tons of natural graphite, or 15,000 tons of spherical graphite, on an annual basis for 10 years.

The output will be supplied to POSCO Future M Co., the battery materials making arm under steel giant POSCO.

POSCO International signed a separate MOU with Black Rock Mining Ltd., under which it will participate in the Australian miner’s rights offering and explore a potential off-take deal to increase the graphite supply to 60,000 tons a year.

Based on the two deals, POSCO International said it expects to be able to establish annually a stable supply chain for some 90,000 tons of graphite, a key material used to make anodes, one of the four core components in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.

Source: Yonhap News Agency