The Cheltenham-based advanced-materials group Versarien (www.versarien.com has signed a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) with the Shandong Institute of Industrial Technology Fund, Jinan Qing Na Material Technology Co Ltd and Jinan Innovation Zone Administrative Committee with a view to establishing the “China-UK Jinan Graphene Industrial Park” in the Jinan Innovation Zone.

The Zone, established in 1991, currently has 10 industrial parks with businesses including software, intelligent manufacturing and life sciences.

The LOI envisages initially establishing a 100,000ft² manufacturing facility to produce and sell Versarien’s proprietary Nanene — a ‘few-layer graphene nano-platelet’ powder.

Versarien will provide its intellectual property (IP) on a licensed basis together with production know-how, while the other joint-venture partners will provide the factory and funding for the plant and equipment.

The second-stage objective is to establish the first Chinese graphene industrial park — the Jinan Graphene Valley — including a graphene research institute with funding coming from the joint-venture partners.

The total project cost is anticipated to be in the region of £55 million. Versarien intends to form a wholly owned Hong Kong company which will become one of the joint-venture partners, while ensuring the strongest prot-ection of its IP.

The agreement follows Versarien’s meeting with President Xi Jinping at the National Graphene Institute at the
University of Manchester in October 2015.