Dec 18 (Reuters) - North American graphite miners asked the U.S. government on Wednesday to impose a tariff as high as 920% on Chinese suppliers of the battery metal in order to counter what they describe as Beijing's "malicious trade practices."

The move is the latest attempt by Western critical minerals suppliers to offset China's widespread control of the world's extraction and processing of the building blocks for electric vehicles and electronics.

Graphite, the largest component by volume in an EV battery, can be synthetically produced or processed from naturally occurring sources. China is the largest producer of both types and earlier this month tightened exports of the metal to the U.S.

The American Active Anode Material Producers, a group of U.S. and Canadian graphite producers, asked the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to "investigate whether China is exporting natural and synthetic graphite ... at unfair prices to the United States" and to impose the tariff rate.

Chinese rivals operate at labor and environmental standards that allow them to rapidly boost production, the group said.

An existing U.S. tariff of 25% on most Chinese graphite is "far too low" and can be absorbed easily by Chinese rivals, the group wrote to U.S. officials.

The Commerce Department and the ITC did not immediately respond to an inquiry seeking comment.

President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on Chinese products broadly. Trump's advisers have also encouraged him to impose tariffs on all foreign critical minerals, including those tied to Beijing.

Not all U.S. critical minerals companies support tariffs. Jervois Global , which had to close the only U.S. cobalt mine before it even opened due to Chinese competition, told Reuters last week it would prefer manufacturers be required to buy Western metals instead of blanket tariffs.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; editing by Diane Craft)

((ernest.scheyder@thomsonreuters.com; X: @ErnestScheyder; +1-469-691-7667; Reuters Messaging: ernest.scheyder.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))