MRL Corporation has signed a certification and licence agreement with a graphene marketing specialist in a warm up to first production at its graphite projects.
Sri Lankan focused MRL Corporation (ASX:MRF) has signed a certification and licence agreement with a graphene marketing specialist in a warm up to first production at its graphite projects.
Graphene is a stronger-than-steel graphite product expected to represent a premium market within the sector’s growing technological end-segments.
The deal with Imagine Intelligent Materials is expected to facilitate sales contracts of the high-grade products.
MRL will pay Imagine a yet-unspecified commission on sales of its certified graphene and other graphite products which carry Imagine’s certification mark.
MRL’s Aluketiya project is planned to begin production in the September quarter this year, while its nearby Pandeniya project is set to secure a mining licence shortly.
Completion of the Sri Lankan licensing process is expected to put the company on track to have two high-grade graphite projects in production.
MRL’s projects are believed to contain the extremely high-grade graphite required for graphene production.
Sri Lanka is famed for being the only commercial producer of crystalline vein graphite and is among the highest quality of naturally occurring material in the world.
Typical high-grade Sri Lankan graphite achieves a greater recovery rate than most disseminated flake graphite deposits due to its reduced physical processing requirement and much higher starting TGC purity.
MRL will begin a new round of metallurgical testwork shortly to establish the optimal conditions for producing graphene from its sites in the country.