China accounted for 82% of global natural graphite production in 2024 and has been using that dominance to exert trade pressure: Beijing introduced export permit requirements for graphite in July 2023, then tightened controls specifically targeting US buyers in December 2024.
Graphite is the core material in every lithium-ion battery anode—making it a dependency embedded in supply chains for EV makers, consumer electronics producers, and defense procurement.
Volt Resources announced in a 17 March ASX filing that its 70%-owned Zavalievsky Graphite plant in Zavalla, Kirovohrad Oblast, had restarted after a 2.5-month winter pause and produced over 19 tonnes of battery-grade graphite in March 2026. The entire batch sold to a European battery company at $3,000 per tonne—$57,000 in total. US defense sector customers are next.
Ore from anywhere
Volt’s filing shows that for the first time at commercial scale, Zavalievsky processed external feedstock—flake graphite from an African mine—rather than ore from the Zavallia deposit the plant sits on. It delivered a production yield of 87% across three batches, demonstrating that the refinery can handle non-Ukrainian ore without significant loss.
Prashant Chintawar, Volt’s chief executive, said the campaign “confirms the robustness and flexibility of our purification process and directly supports our feed-flexible strategy for the planned Alabama Graphite Refinery.”
Volt is developing that facility in the US, designed from the outset to accept ore from multiple global sources; the Zavalievsky campaign was its proof-of-concept run.
The crisis before
The 2.5-month pause that just ended was seasonal—the shutdown before it was not. The National Mining Association of Ukraine announced in mid-December 2024 that Zavalievsky—Ukraine’s only graphite facility, operating since 1934—had halted production entirely.
Rising electricity tariffs set by Ukraine’s energy regulator and higher railway charges from Ukrzaliznytsia had pushed production costs past what market prices would support; global graphite prices had already been eroded by Chinese dumping.
The association flagged the plant’s role in electrode manufacturing, automotive supply chains, and defense technologies, calling the closure a serious blow to national industry.
Operations eventually resumed before the winter pause set in. S&P Global reported in January 2025 that operations at the plant since Russia’s full-scale invasion began had been “disrupted by various issues, including a lack of staff.” No official headcount has been published; Volt did not disclose employee numbers in its March filing.
The minerals deal
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Ukraine ranks among the top five countries globally in explored graphite reserves, according to the State Geological Survey, with six known deposits—of which Zavallia is the only one currently being mined.
Washington and Kyiv signed a deal in May 2025 establishing a joint reconstruction investment fund, with Ukraine contributing half of the revenues from new state resource licenses in exchange for US contributions to the fund and priority rights on extracted materials.
Analysts have warned that actual material shipments could take a decade, given outdated Soviet-era geological data, war damage, and the limited investment the sector has seen.
A processing plant already delivering to European battery buyers on schedule is a different starting position than a deposit on an old map.
Volt plans to fulfill a roughly 20-tonne order for a US industrial customer and deliver samples to potential partners. Discussions with US commercial and defense companies seeking non-Chinese graphite supplies are ongoing.
