Westwater Resources submits Section 404 permit for Alabama graphite deposit

Westwater Resources Inc. submitted a Section 404 permit application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its Coosa Graphite Deposit in Alabama, the largest natural flake graphite deposit in the contiguous United States. The application, filed under the Clean Water Act, covers potential water-related impacts from future development at the site in Coosa County.

"Submission of the Section 404 permit application reflects continued progress in advancing Coosa through the permitting process," Frank Bakker, President and Chief Executive Officer of Westwater Resources, said. "Coosa is intended to serve as a future domestic feedstock source for our Kellyton Graphite Plant, supporting our objective of developing a secure U.S. vertically-integrated supply of battery-grade graphite."

The Section 404 filing follows a separate permit application submitted earlier this year to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. Coosa is listed on the federal FAST-41 Permitting Dashboard, which provides a publicly available timetable for environmental review and permitting activities.

The Coosa deposit sits about 30 miles from Westwater's Kellyton Graphite Plant in east-central Alabama, which is being developed to process natural flake graphite into coated spherical purified graphite for lithium-ion battery anodes. Westwater expects to evaluate a final investment decision for Coosa after completing the broader permitting process.

Coosa's Scale in Context

The Coosa Graphite Deposit ranks as the largest and most developed graphite deposit in the contiguous U.S., positioning it as a potential domestic alternative to China-dominated graphite supply chains. China controls roughly 70% of global natural graphite production and nearly all processing capacity for battery-grade material, according to USGS data. Westwater's vertically integrated mine-to-market strategy — from Coosa feedstock to Kellyton processing — targets a gap in U.S. critical mineral infrastructure that both the Biden and Trump administrations prioritized through the Defense Production Act and Inflation Reduction Act provisions.

What's Next

Westwater anticipates advancing Coosa in alignment with the FAST-41 process, a federal program designed to streamline permitting for major infrastructure projects. The company has not disclosed a timeline for the Section 404 review or the subsequent final investment decision. The Kellyton plant, which will consume Coosa's output, is being built to produce coated spherical purified graphite, a material classified as a critical mineral by the U.S. Department of Energy.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.