CEO DA Technology Lee Sang-hwa (left) and Chairman of VGG Nguyen Duc Luong. (Source: DA Technology)

Seoul – The Republic of Korea (RoK)’s Technology DA Company on January 3 announced that it has signed an exclusive contract for importing natural graphite with Vietnam Graphite Group (VGG).

Under the contract, VGG plans to supply at least 20,000 tonnes of natural graphite every year to DA Technology, which has the exclusive right to import and distribute natural graphite of 99.97% purity produced by VGG in the RoK.

A representative from DA Technology said that in 2023, the RoK relied on China for 96.4% of its natural graphite needs, the highest rate in the past five years. As China has strengthened control on graphite exports from December 2023, the Korean company hopes the freshly signed contract will have a positive impact on the supply of the mineral to the country.

DA Technology plans to jointly invest in graphite processing and refining facilities to expand graphite production capacity (CAPA).

Due to the recent boom in demand, high-purity graphite has been widely used in lithium-ion battery production.

VGG is holding the right to exploit a graphite mine with a total area of 34.3ha in the northern province of Yen Bai. The company also owns a graphite processing plant in Tran Yen district, Yen Bai province.

The total crude ore reserves of the graphite mine are estimated at 4 million tonnes, and VGG's graphite production plant is capable of processing 400,000 tonnes of ore concentrate per year.