And another article from Resource Rising Stars............... the word is filtering through.............
“Outstanding” graphene potential puts a rocket under emerging graphite players
“I’ll have what she’s having.”
The famous quote from the 1989 movie smash hit When Harry Met Sally could well have been running through the minds of dozens of envious junior explorers this week observing the share price performance of graphite juniors MRL Corporation (ASX: MRF) and Ardiden (ASX: ADV).
The share prices of both companies quite literally exploded mid-week as they revealed the results of test work undertaken by researchers at Adelaide University on the ability to extract graphene from their respective graphite deposits in Sri Lanka and Canada.
From a close of 3.4c on Tuesday, MRL shares nearly tripled, surging through 10c on huge volumes before settling back to a still-impressive close last night of 9.6c.
Ardiden shares erupted in equally spectacular fashion. After closing at 0.6c on Wednesday, they jumped 83 per cent to close at 1.1c on massive volumes, before settling back yesterday to 1c – still up a handsome 66 per cent.
So what on earth is graphene and why are investors getting so excited about it?
To borrow from MRL’s helpful backgrounder: “graphene, the well-publicised and now famous two-dimensional carbon allotrope, is as versatile a material as any discovered on earth. Its amazing properties as the lightest and strongest material, compared with its ability to conduct heat and electricity better than anything else, mean it can be integrated into a huge number of applications.”
Or, from Ardiden’s release: “Graphene sells for a substantial premium to conventional graphite because of its exceptional properties as the lightest and strongest known material on earth, as well as its ability to conduct heat and electricity better than any known substance.
“Graphene has a growing number of potential high-technology applications and uses worldwide including super-capacitors, conductive inks, biomedical, paints, sporting goods, plastics, 3D printing inks, alloys, energy storage and concrete/civil markets.”
MRL said the excellent results from graphene testwork on graphite from its high-grade Sri Lankan projects had prompted it to consider the merits of producing both graphite and graphene in its development plan.
“Discussions will be initiated with a number of research organisations to optimise that route to production,” it said.
Meanwhile, Ardiden reported “highly promising” initial results from graphite characterisation and graphite exfoliation undertaken by the University of Adelaide on drill core from the Manitouwadge Graphite Project.
The test work confirmed that graphene can be extracted using various methods, and the high quality of the graphene produced was described as comparable with synthetic graphene routes.
“The potential to produce graphene of very high quality using a number of different methods opens up a whole new realm of exciting opportunities for this project to be exploited as a scalable producer of graphene as well as of flake or jumbo graphite,” said Ardiden Director James Thompson.
The reason for all the excitement is that demand for graphite and graphene is being driven upwards by green technology – lithium ion batteries used in electric car batteries, smart phones and tablets.
Exciting new projects like Tesla’s recently unveiled home storage battery (“Powerwall”), are seen as having the potential to drive a step-change in demand for these “wonder materials”.
To quote from a recent Paydirt article on the graphite/graphene revolution: “Graphene has the potential in the 21st century to be what steel was to the 19th century and plastic was to the 20th century”.
MRF Price at posting:
8.6¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
