Graphite One Resources Inc. said Feb. 22 that the Alaskan Senate took up a bill that would allow the Alaska Industrial Development Export Authority to issue bonds to finance infrastructure and construction costs of the company's Graphite Creek project in the state.

The U.S. Department of the Interior recently published a draft list of critical minerals in the Federal Register, which identified graphite as one of the minerals.

The U.S. is 100% import-dependent for graphite, according to Graphite One CEO Anthony Huston.

In February 2017, the company and the Alaska Industrial Development Export Authority entered into a deal for the development of an integrated mining, processing and manufacturing site for high-grade coated spherical graphite primarily for lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries.

Alaska also included the Graphite Creek project in the state's "significant potential development and infrastructure projects" in April 2017.