good question. BKT will need to disclose this in time. i was informed the following 9 months ago by a 3rd party:
The higher the purity, the lower the yield, the higher the cost. If you produce a 92% LOI, the recovery is much higher, higher yield, lower cost.
BKT concentrate is being produced in lab / pilot plant environment to achieve the 99% LOI, yet this is a far cry from producing this level of purity in a 40,000 MT to 100,000 MT plant. There water variations, rheology variations, dosing of reagents, ore variations, grinding times, cleaner and rougher timing, etc. It is a scientific art that is on the same level of production as Molybdenum or nickel. If they can produce 99% LOI at commercial production levels, then they would be the first in the history of graphite to do so.
Coarse flake is not just for expandable or expanded graphite for fire retardants, but also for fuel cell, oil & gas exploration, geothermal, graphene production, and commercial ink products just to name a few applications.
BKT flake has much potential in industrial and consumer good applications where pricing is much higher than the average sales price they indicate now....
I hope they can bring on board experienced graphite technical sales personnel and senior management that understands and can provide solid strategy options that does not follow the super hype of the battery industry as it is today.
