Highlights

• Graphite One (GPHOF) confirms elevated heavy rare earth elements in separated garnet from Alaska's Graphite Creek, but has not disclosed deposit-scale resources, bulk grades, or extraction economics—chemistry alone doesn't validate a mineable business.
• The company remains a pre-revenue, cash-burning speculative play with approximately $190M market cap, dependent on future capital raises and government support despite owning the largest U.S. natural graphite resource.
• Timing aligns with critical mineral supply chain concerns as China controls 70-75% of natural graphite and over 90% of battery-grade processing, making U.S. alternatives strategically important but operationally unproven.

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Graphite One Inc (opens in a new tab). (GPHOF) latest press release (opens in a new tab) says independent lab work confirms “elevated” magnet and heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) in garnet separated from Graphite Creek drill core, with 85% of the REEs in the garnet fraction classified as magnet or HREEs. The company highlights dysprosium (32–63 ppm), yttrium (198–427 ppm), and scandium (84–141 ppm) in that separated garnet material, tested by ActLabs after mechanical separation at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Those facts can be simultaneously true—and still not prove a mineable rare earth business.

Chemistry Isn’t the Business Model

Garnets can host HREEs. So the mineralogical premise is plausible. The more investor-relevant question is what the release does not foreground: these are ppm-grade numbers in a separated fraction, not a disclosed, deposit-scale rare earth resource, reserve, or even a consistent bulk-rock grade across the pit shell. Percentages like “85% of total REEs” can sound huge while masking a smaller reality: if total REE content is low, “85%” is still 85% of not much.

Graphite One’s language—“generational deposit,” “few rare earth deposits,” “by-product recovery will maximize value”—reads like classic junior-company cadence. It may be directionally optimistic, but it is not yet substantiated by metallurgy, recoveries, reagent consumption, or separation economics. The company itself flags the work as preliminary and sets “best method for extracting REEs” as a future test program with a U.S. national lab—translation: the hard part is still ahead.

Why This Story Still Matters in the Rare Earth Supply Chain

The timing is not accidental. Magnet supply risk has become policy-grade reality as China’s licensing regime tightens and loosens in calibrated bursts—enough to disrupt OEM planning, not enough to surrender leverage. That backdrop rewards any U.S.-adjacent critical mineral narrative—especially one that pairs graphite with magnet REE buzzwords.

Investors should treat this release as a screening datapoint, not a rerating event. The deposit may host interesting trace REEs. But until Graphite One demonstrates scale, extraction, separation pathways, and costs, “HREE presence” remains geology—not a supply-chain solution.

The Company

Graphite One Inc. (GPHOF) is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on developing the massive Graphite Creek deposit (opens in a new tab) in Alaska into a vertically integrated source for U.S. electric vehicle (EV) battery materials, aiming to produce both natural and synthetic graphite anode materials (AAM) for North America's clean energy future, led by CEO Anthony Huston and supported by strategic partners like Doyon and Aleut Corporations, positioning itself as a key player in the domestic critical minerals supply chain. 

The company remains a high-risk, early-stage critical-minerals developer whose equity value is driven more by strategic narrative than operating fundamentals. The company’s market cap has surged to roughly $190–$195 million, reflecting strong speculative interest in U.S.-based graphite and potential rare-earth optionality, yet it generates no revenue, posts persistent losses (TTM net loss ≈ $8.2 million), and continues to burn cash (operating cash flow ≈ –$5.2 million, levered free cash flow ≈ –$16.7 million). Liquidity is thin, with ~$3.6 million in cash, a sub-1.0 current ratio, and future progress dependent on continued capital raises, government support, or strategic partnerships.

While Graphite Creek is widely cited as the largest U.S. natural graphite resource and has boosted the stock more than 120% year-over-year, the company remains pre-production, highly dilutive by nature, lightly institutionalized, and exposed to execution, financing, and policy risk—making GPHOF a speculative optionality play, not an operating graphite or rare-earth business today.

But make no mistake, the company’s mission for national supply chain resilience represents a mission-critical endeavor.

Graphite

Graphite is a critical mineral essential for EV batteries, energy storage, and tech, with demand surging, but China dominates production (around 70-75% of natural, over 90% of battery-grade/anode material), controlling crucial processing and supply chains, creating global supply chain concerns despite other nations holding reserves, with market size projected to hit tens of billions by 2030s. 

Source: Graphite One press release via PR Newswire, December 16, 2025.

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