NextSource Materials Inc. announced the first production of SuperFlake graphite concentrate at its Molo mine in Madagascar. As part of the commissioning and optimization of the processing plant, the commissioning sequence was prioritized for initial production of coarse flake concentrate, with the first tonne of production consisting of +48 mesh (jumbo size) SuperFlake® graphite. Since initiation of plant commissioning on March 23, 2023, the commissioning and operations teams have progressed methodically through debottlenecking and optimization activities.

The operations team will now shift their focus to ramping up the plant throughput to its nameplate capacity of 17,000 tonnes per annum. The Company expects to sell all the flake graphite produced at the Molo Graphite Mine to key customers under existing offtake agreements, which includes Germany's thyssenkrupp Materials Trading GmbH and the Company's Japanese technical partner, whom is the main supplier of value-added graphite to Japan's anode processor that in turn supplies multiple Japanese and international OEMs with graphite anode material. The Company continues to be engaged in advanced discussions with several major EV companies (OEMs) and has received requests for multi-tonne samples of battery anode material as part of the OEMs qualification process.

As such, the Company will begin sending flake graphite qualifying material to its Battery Anode Facility (BAF) technical partners for conversion into coated, spheronized, purified graphite ("CSPG"), which is the final form of anode material that is assembled along with cathode material into finished lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicle ("EV") applications.