The Financial Post reports in its Thursday edition that the U.S. government plans to provide a $754-million loan to construct a synthetic graphite plant in Tennessee to Novonix Ltd. (all figures U.S.). The Post's Gabriel Friedman writes that Novonix's chief executive officer, Chris Burns, is based in Halifax, where the company maintains its research labs, though it is publicly listed in Australia. The loan is just one example of how U.S. President Joe Biden's focus on building out a North American critical minerals supply chain has often accrued to the benefit of Canadian-based companies, many of which have struggled to raise money on public markets in the face of moribund commodity prices. Mr.
Burns worked at Tesla between 2015 and 2017 where he came to view China's dominance of the graphite supply chain as a threat.
As a result, he began working on a way to manufacture synthetic graphite more efficiently when he left Tesla and returned to Novonix. The company previously said the U.S. Department of Energy awarded it a $100-million grant plus a $103-million tax credit to build its first synthetic graphite plant. The $754-million loan from the DOE this week would go toward constructing a second plant.
© 2025 Canjex Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.