Posco Group, South Korea’s largest steel producer, announced it had agreed to acquire a 20% stake in Australia's Black Rock Mining Ltd for US$40m to strengthen its global access to key battery minerals.

Posco Group owns South Korea’s main battery anode producer, Posco Future M which is trying to reduce its dependence on Chinese companies which dominate the global supply of electric vehicle (EV) battery minerals including graphite.

Black Rock is developing its 84% owned Mahenge Graphite Project in Tanzania which was estimated to contain up to 6m tons of natural graphite making it the world’s second largest graphite reserve.

Posco International, the group’s trading unit plans to strengthen its ties with Black Rock to ensure it has privileged access to the Mahenge Graphite Project’s output when it begins production.

Posco has recently diversified its sourcing of other battery minerals, including lithium, cobalt and nickel, in line with the US government’s plans to stop providing tax incentives for EVs fitted with batteries containing Chinese supplied battery minerals from 2027.

Posco chairman Chang In-hwa said in a statement: “We will continue to discover projects that contribute to improving the global competitiveness of key national industries such as secondary battery materials. We also plan to use the group’s various business portfolios and global networks to establish supply chains for national security.”