Graphite One’s Alaskan Pit Sparks Indigenous Outcry as Shareholder Vote and Pentagon Funding Loom
11.06.2026 - 18:23:54 | boerse-global.de
The stock has shed nearly 42% of its value since January, but the real storm brewing for Graphite One is not at the exchange — it is on the Seward Peninsula. Indigenous communities from Teller, Mary’s Igloo and Brevig Mission made their position clear at a meeting on June 2: they are willing to talk, but they will not accept the kind of pit the company is planning. At 1.8 kilometres long and over 400 metres deep, the proposed Graphite Creek open-pit mine would slice through hunting and fishing grounds that have sustained local families for generations. Roads, gravel pads and related infrastructure, residents warned, would permanently disrupt their way of life.
While opposition hardens in Alaska, Graphite One is pushing ahead with the commercial side of the business. The developer has shipped anode-material samples to six potential customers for qualification testing, and talks are underway for binding off-take agreements. So far only one name is tied down: luxury carmaker Lucid is scheduled to start receiving natural graphite for vehicle batteries in 2028. To handle that supply chain, the company has secured a new site in Conneaut, Ohio after scrapping an earlier location in Warren due to insufficient power infrastructure. The Ohio processing plant is slated for completion by the end of 2027, with an initial capacity of 10,000 tonnes per year and an eye on expansion to 25,000 tonnes.
Financially, the project rests on a mix of government support and tentative lending. The Pentagon has awarded a $37.5 million grant and, in a separate report, called for a massive build-out of domestic battery production — a policy shift that directly benefits Graphite One’s aim to replace America’s 100% import dependence on natural graphite. Meanwhile, the U.S. Export-Import Bank has signalled non-binding interest in up to roughly $2.07 billion to finance both the mine and the processing plant. At the mine’s full output of 175,000 tonnes of concentrate per year, the logistics would require shipping about 8,600 containers through the port of Nome before forwarding the material to Ohio.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Graphite One?
Yet the market remains unconvinced. Shares inched up 2.27% on Thursday to €0.68 in European trading, still 58% below the January high of €1.59. The stock continues to trade well under its 200-day moving average of €0.84, a classic sign of persistent selling pressure and dilution concerns. The company has already issued millions of options and performance shares, and for a firm with negligible revenue, the prospect of further dilution is a sensitive issue ahead of the annual general meeting on June 26 in Vancouver. Shareholders will vote on executive compensation packages and board elections — the first major test of investor sentiment as Graphite One tries to transition from a pure exploration play into a construction-stage company.
The regulatory clock is also ticking. The Army Corps of Engineers, working under the FAST-41 programme designed to accelerate environmental reviews for critical infrastructure, aims to issue a final decision by September 29, 2026. Between now and then, management needs to convert ongoing customer tests into firm contracts and navigate the widening gap between Washington’s political ambitions and the very real local resistance on the ground in Alaska. Without secured offtake, the grand vision of a vertically integrated U.S. graphite supply chain risks remaining just that — a vision.
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