US government gives high priority status to Graphite One’s Alaskan project – Daniel Sekulich (Northern Miner – February 3, 2021)

Global mining news

In mid-January Graphite One’s (TSX: GPH; US-OTC: GPHOF) Graphite Creek project in Alaska was designated as a High-Priority Infrastructure Project (HPIP) by the U.S. government’s Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Committee (FPISC). The approval comes after the project was originally nominated for HPIP designation by Alaskan governor Mike Dunleavy in October, 2019.

In his 2019 nomination letter to the FPISC, Governor Dunleavy wrote that designating Graphite Creek as a High-Priority Infrastructure Project “will send a strong signal that the U.S. intends to end the days of our 100% import-dependency for this increasingly critical mineral.”

The Vancouver-based company says that Graphite Creek, which is located in Alaska’s Seward Peninsula, about 55 km north of the city of Nome, is the highest grade and largest known large flake graphite deposit in the U.S. The site is adjacent to the Imuruk Basin, which opens into the Bering Strait that separates Alaska from Siberian Russia.

The HPIP designation allows Graphite One to list on the U.S. government’s Federal Permitting Dashboard, which ensures that the various federal permitting agencies coordinate their reviews of projects as a means of streamlining the approval process.

Reflecting on the HPIP designation, Graphite One’s president and CEO, Anthony Huston, told The Northern Miner it highlighted that their project has dual interests for the American economy as it seeks to move forward.

For the rest of this article: https://www.northernminer.com/news/us-government-gives-high-priority-status-to-graphite-ones-alaskan-project/1003827859/