Graphite, graphene and who has the best conversion technique...

Graphite, graphene and who has the best conversion technique

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...ersion-technique/story-e6frg9lo-1227474602869

• August 08, 2015 12:00AM

The real battle is being waged over graphite and graphene and who has the best technique for converting the coveted substance to industrial applications.

In essence, graphene is the building block of graphite, with one millimetre of natural graphite containing three million layers of graphene.

An ultra-strong, ultralight wonder material surpassing even Kryptonite, graphene has hundreds of potential applications such as in building materials, mobile phone screens and 3D printing.

Graphene can also be produced synthetically, but extracting it in an economic way is another matter.

A slew of ASX-listed stocks have announced breakthroughs in deriving the graphene, which has been done in labs ever since two University of Manchester smarties won a Nobel prize for extracting the stuff in 2004.

But according to veteran resources watcher Warwick Grigor of Far East Capital, it’s getting hard to tell the difference between the graphene impostors and the real McCoy.

“In theory you can get graphene from any graphite,’’ Grigor says. “You can also get graphene from other sources such as methane.

“The mere act of extracting graphene should not be a motivator for investors as it could be a hollow claim.’’

Far East accuses one unnamed graphene stock of “grandiose rhetoric’’ in a disjointed release pertaining to graphene extraction.

“While compliance with the JORC (mining) Code is enforced by the ASX when geology is involved, there is no rigorous standard applied to releases concerning metallurgy.’’

In theory, says Grigor, perfect graphene is a lovely hexagonal, honeycomb lattice “with not a single atom out of place’’.

In reality, Mother Earth includes additives and impurities that can interfere with the processing. Graphene also comes in various forms and is unstable until it bonds with another material.

Criterion won’t bore readers with the science of processing, mainly because he doesn’t understand it himself. Suffice to say there is a growing cohort of ASX plays pitching not so much the graphite mining story, but their secret herbs and spices formulae for deriving the graphene.

MRL Corporation (MRF, 5.3c), which plans to mine in Sri Lanka, describes an “electrochemical exfoliation process’’, which is not about smoother skin but about isolating graphene from the raw graphite without having to purify the metal first.

Strategic Energy Resources (SER, 2.6c) has gone so far as to demerge Ionic Industries, which plans a pilot plant in either Victoria or South Australia.

Ionic’s partial focus is on its patented SuperSand, which is inert graphene oxide with a low graphene content, suitable for water treatment or removing contaminants such as mercury in power station flues.

Strategic earlier demerged and listed Valence Industries (VXL), which owns the producing Uley graphite mine in SA.

Valence became the best performing float of 2014 and Strategic hopes to emulate this good fortune when it lists Ionic.

Talga Resources (TLG, 36c) has five graphite projects in Sweden, but has also commissioned a pilot plant in Germany based on its “low impact physio-chemical techniques’’.

The process removes the dirty intermediate stages of crushing, grinding and milling.

Metals of Africa (MTA, 5.4c) claims its Montepuez Central Project in Mozambique is capable of producing grapheme product “comparable to synthetically derived graphene, which is a very high grade material’’.

MoA draws on the Adelaide University to validate its “thermal method” of processing raw graphite.

MoA highlights the proximity of its Mozambique ground to Syrah Resources’ capacious Balama project (more below).

Syrah Resources

(SYR) $3.38, Lanka Graphite (LGR) 9c

Until someone can crack the code and demonstrate economic graphene production, there’s a danger of miners flooding the market with graphite that no one can use. Depending on flake size and purity, some graphite is readily usable in products including batteries, but the ultra-sexy applications require the graphene. But that hasn’t stopped Syrah, the big daddy of the sector, continuing to be very well backed.

To further its quest to exploit the billion-tonne-plus Balama, Syrah this week raised $211 million in an insto placement and renounceable rights offer at $3.25 (an 11 per cent discount).

While the underwritten institutional leg fell $68m shy of the targeted $166m, the shortfall bookbuild subsequently found the shares a good home at $3.50 a share (a 4 per cent discount).

The dilemma with Syrah is whether Balama justifies its post-raising valuation nudging $800m, or whether investors are drawn to the stock on the rationale that, as it’s the biggest graphite play, it must be the best.

At the minnow end, Sri Lankan hopeful Lanka Graphite finally listed after an elongated process to raise $3.8m. The teardrop-shaped nation has a 200-year history of graphite mining and Lanka Graphite will focus on old shafts and adits.

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FOR Starters why wasn't TON included or BBR but a new start-up? What the???


Like all media I think one must separate the slant of the article from the rain water...


Obviously we can see from MR Grigor's investments what he thinks is real as opposed to hype.


The slant is to compare science to secret herbs and spices... What the?


(TONGUE IN CHEEK) SL Vein Graphite is like fried chicken and the historic announcement about achieving ORE into GRAPHENE is a secret herbs and spices!!! LOL


Of course the race is on but only SL Vein has the unique Purity and Properties. I noticed just how important; strategic and special SL Vein Graphite is was not mentioned or MR Grigor's support and singling out of MRL Corporation or the new Partnership with Imagine IM was not mentioned???


HHHHMMMM the comparison with ORE into GRAPHENE in 1 STEP with Secret herbs and spices diminishes the truly important milestone for Graphene and MRL Corporation in my opinion.



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