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New Graphite Processing Facility Opens In Mesa

Urbix is a company that takes graphite from mines around the country and purifies it for industrial use.
Jimmy Jenkins/KJZZ
/
editorial | staff
Urbix is a company that takes graphite from mines around the country and purifies it for industrial use.

A new processing facility had a grand opening in Mesa on Thursday.

Urbix was founded in 2014 in anticipation of the growing need for graphite, an important component in lithium batteries.

The company’s 31,00-square-foot warehouse in north Mesa is mostly bare now, but that will be changing.

Urbix Chief Operating Officer Adam Small describes how their new system will purifying graphite after it’s been extracted from a mine.

"This is a combination of a water system and then some post processing equipment that’s used to separate out the graphite, water and chemicals at the end of the process,” Small said. "We create graphite at a purity of 99.9% purity plus. Once you get to that purity is when you start dabble in applications such as batteries and aerospace composites. You have to have a higher purity graphite for that.”

Small says their system utilizes a smaller footprint and much less energy than the current major industry leaders in China.

The company is already producing batteries for a local scooter manufacturer. They hope to expand to more industries here in the United States.

Jimmy Jenkins was a producer and senior field correspondent at KJZZ from 2014 to 2021.