MRL strikes key agreement for sales of its premium Sri Lankan graphite
MRL Corporation (ASX: MRF) is pleased to advise it has moved to facilitate sales contracts by appointing an Australian graphite and graphene specialist to act as an agent for its high–grade products.
Imagine Intelligent Materials will characterise and certify MRL’s graphite and graphene products with the objective of selling them into the optimum graphene applications, and will negotiate sales of the MRL graphene with Imagine’s customers and licensees on behalf of MRL.
MRL will pay Imagine a commission on sales of MRL’s Certified Graphene and other graphite products which carry Imagine’s Certification Mark.
The certification and licence agreement with Imagine comes as MRL prepares for first production from its high-grade graphite projects in Sri Lanka.
At Aluketiya final engineering studies are underway for construction of the head-frames which will be used to recover the graphite from shallow, low-cost shafts.
MRL also expects to secure the Industrial Mining Licence for its second Sri Lankan project, Pandeniya, shortly.
Completion of the Sri Lankan licensing process will put MRL on track to have Two high-grade graphite projects in production.
MRL’s projects contain extremely high-grade graphite which preliminary scientific testing has found is ideal for the efficient production of premium-priced graphene.
MRL will begin a further round of metallurgical test work shortly to establish the optimal conditions for producing graphene from its graphite.
MRL Corporation (ASX: MRF) is pleased to advise that a research report on the Company has been released by Far East Capital.
The report follows a recent trip to the Company's high grade Sri Lankan projects by Far East Capital's Chairman, Warwick Grigor. The research report can be viewed on the Company's website at www.mrltd.com.au.
About MRL Corporation Ltd (ASX: MRF)
MRL is aiming to develop an underground mining operation to extract high-grade, crystalline vein graphite, which is unique to Sri Lanka. The Company holds exclusive rights to exploration licenses covering approximately 6,300 hectares in area, with historical workings located within nearly all license grids.
About Graphene
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. Initially this will mean graphene is used to help improve the performance and efficiency of current materials and substances, but in the future it will also be developed in conjunction with other two-dimensional (2D) crystals to create some even more amazing compounds to suit an even wider range of applications.
One area of research which is being very highly studied is energystorage. Currently, scientists are working on enhancing the capabilities of lithium ion batteries (by incorporating graphene as an anode) to offer much higher storage capacities with much better longevity and charge rate. Also, graphene is being studied and developed to be used in the manufacture of supercapacitors which are able to be charged very quickly, yet also be able to store a large amount of electricity.
About Graphite
Natural graphite occurs in three forms: amorphous graphite, flake graphite and the most rare and highest quality form being crystalline vein graphite. Sri Lanka is famed for being the only commercial producer of crystalline vein graphite (lump or Ceylon graphite), the highest quality of naturally occurring material in the world. The quality of vein graphite produced in the country has a purity level in excess of 90% TGC (Carbon as graphite) which means little upgrading and processing is required to make a high quality saleable product.
Vein (crystalline) graphite is the purest form of graphite with TGC grades typically >90%, with some grade as high as 99.5% TGC. Mining vein graphite may be considered analogous to highgrade gold vein mining, requiring considerably less capital expenditure when compared to largescale open pit mining. That is, development, mining equipment and processing plants will be of a significantly smaller scale. Operating unit costs will also be lower than those for typical largescale open pit mining.
Nature of vein graphite
Sri Lankan graphite deposition model is best described from the 'bottom up': tension fractures formed in the metamorphic sediments, caused by the folding of the sediments, creating 'conduits' for the hydrothermal deposition of high quality vein graphite. Historically, mining of these veins has found the veins generally increase in thickness and grade quality with increasing depth. Graphite veins generally dip steeply at -70-degree to near vertical, enabling 'narrow vein' extraction mining techniques similar to those used on narrow vein, high-grade gold deposits.
The method commonly used is an overhead retreat stoping technique where the high-grade vein graphite is mined and hauled to surface without contamination. The graphite selvages, in contact with the surrounding waste, is hauled to surface and stockpiled for upgrading. The balance of the waste is used to fill the floor of the stope. Due to the nature of the vein graphite, it is anticipated vein widths of 25cm, using narrow vein mining techniques can be economically extracted from underground operations.