Graphitexplorer und Quasiproduzenten

“With the high grade of the graphite content in the ore in the ground we’ll become the lowest cost producer in the world and enable many new high profile applications.”

The coming year consists of completing the scoping study well underway, continuing the search for the right offtake partners, permitting and feasibility works (backed by two historically completed feasibility studies) and swiftly into late-2012/early-2013 construction to complete at the 2013 year-end. Furthermore, armed with the large high grade NI43-101 resource, plans to delineate further tonnage, 10 graphite concentrated showing targets within the Lac Knife claim map, a patented processing technology capable of generating 99.99 per cent purified product and interests in Graphoid Inc., an outfit focused on graphene, Focus will rapidly deliver to the global markets the graphite supply they are hungry for.

Leading with Lac Knife

The past 18 months have seen Focus step up from starting out as a junior explorer-developer with a handful of choice northern Quebec claims, to establishing itself as a leader for technology grade graphite. With its scoping study due to wrap up in a couple of months, the team is looking forward to further drilling out in depth the three zones comprising its current NI43-101 and exploring the stack of graphite shows throughout the wider Lac Knife area. Like any keen mine builder aware that mines are monetised as much as they are built by grade and tons, however high, Focus has readied for 2012 development activity by way of financing, completed in December, 2011. Raising approximately one third of the total funding required to take Lac Knife into commercial output, Economo says, is a critical step in seeing through the upcoming work programmes planned.

“Part of our strategy was always to de-risk the company by having a good cash position and that’s what we’ve done. The financing will make it a lot easier for us to raise the balance required for the mine and the processing plant and allow us to negotiate from a position of strength,” he explains.

The second part of Focus’ sublime production equation stems from the nature of the material itself. While other graphite players strive to put mines into production at grades of two, four and six per cent, Lac Knife’s 16 per cent grade-in-ground is quite something. At two per cent, a company would need to process 48-50 tonnes of ore, making it prohibitively expensive to produce one tonne of 98 per cent material. Comparatively, Focus need process six or seven tonnes of raw ore to obtain that 98 per cent premium product—and with an additional patented processing technology capable of purifying its graphite to an impressive 99.9 and 99.99 per cent product for lithium batteries. At 99.9 per cent concentration, one tonne sells at $4,000 on average while 99.99 per cent purity sells in a range of $10,000-$60,000 per tonne depending on end-user requirements. The company’s operating costs against premium priced production are unmatched.

“The processing plant we will start to build in the town of Fermont by the end of this year will take approximately 150,000 tonnes of ore annually, netting us around 20,000-27,000 tonnes of 98 per cent quality graphite,” Economo explains.

“For our patented proprietary technology, we’ll see a pilot plant by the end of this year and a fully operational plant alongside our processing plant in 2013.”

This Focus-masterminded process is also capable of producing graphene; another favourable potential revenue stream given that it results from the same economical, environmentally friendly process in significant quantities. The implications of this against current processing, which favours vapour chemical deposition-type activity that is both costly and damages the ore through oxidation, remain insurmountable.

“It also ties in well with our 40 per cent interest in Graphoid Inc.,” Economo adds.

“Graphoid is working with Rutgers University in the development of plastics that are extremely strong due to the incorporation of our graphene.”

Combined, the large NI43-101 world-highest-grade resource, unique technology, graphene production and interest in Graphoid will likely prove ever more attractive as 2012 drilling unfolds and delineates more resources.

The offtake, exploration & global demand

Focusing (no pun intended) on the three zones within a 300X600 metre area which make up the current Lac Knife resource, Focus will commence deeper exploration during the spring. Expanding on the current deposit, drilled to 125 metres at a 45 degree angle, effectively 90 metres depth, the team plans to follow the graphite down to around 400 metres and further identify quite how large a resource it has.

“Given that it’s open in all directions that’s the deepest we’ll go for now,” Economo says.

“It’ll definitely be an open pit mine, so going down to 400-500 metres is totally feasible. We expect to come up with much higher resources this summer.”

Drilling for further resource delineation will also take place over the 10 strong showings of graphite concentration within the claim and each may well result in a pit with similar types of volumes as those currently accounted for the December NI43-101.

“We’ll also do surface exploration in the 265 claims we secured this year and last year in Quebec,” Economo says.

“If we want to reach our goal and be the biggest and the best, we need to offer variety to our global customer base. We need diverse products and we need to make sure that we have the resources to fulfil the long-term supply agreements we plan to establish.”

While graphite is Focus’ steadfast main game, staying diverse has remained on the agenda, evidenced by its Kwyjibo rare earth elements-copper project some 10 kilometres north of Lac Manitou where Focus has invested almost $3 million and fast-tracked the project in partnership with Soquem, the Quebec government’s commercial mining corporation, and obtained 50 per cent interest in just one year. Having identified rare earth element neodymium, the company is waiting on assay results from a comprehensive drilling programme undertaken last summer before it makes its next move.

“It’s a little early to say where it will go, until we get our results finalised and reviewed by our geologists over the next month,” Economo affirms.

“We’re at a point in our growth where we have to streamline our interests on Focus Metals and our graphite business. We plan to spin off the other projects in the next few months.”

Prioritising accordingly has also seen the company initiate offtake discussions with some of the world’s largest graphite users. Given that graphite is a requisite element in engineering disciplines from medical applications to construction and semiconductors to solar panels, interest in securing Focus’ high grade, low-cost North American supply has been strong.

“Over the coming year we’ll put offtake agreements in place, in fact it will probably be sooner than later,” Economo says.

“We have a number of people currently testing our graphite and we expect to have some of these offtake agreements signed in the near future.”

There is also room for graphite-knowledgeable parties of a sales, mining or engineering persuasion, he ensures. It’s likely that future offtake partners will be companies capable of placing Focus’ superior graphite products on international markets.

“Graphite, unlike many minerals and metals, is an engineering product and requires a lot of expertise. There are companies that have been doing it for over 100 years, so we see sense in teaming up with those sorts of groups in addition to developing it internally,” Economo explains.

“We’re not looking to option the property in any way. We’ll finance it and maintain control of it, but there are areas we could consider assistance on in terms of sales and technical support.”

At first glance, Focus’ vision to become the world’s largest producer of low-cost, high grade graphite seems a monumental challenge. Closer inspection of quite how impressive the resource, exploration potential, processing technology and funding secured actually are, reveals it to be a fitting one for the company.

Economo says that “the carbon age is just beginning,” and as it unfolds, Focus is braced to hit global graphite markets and deliver precisely the product everyone is looking for. 

Quelle: www.internationalresourcejournal.com/.../focus_metals_inc.html

 

Folgende statements des CEOs, Gary Economo, sprechen für sich:

" At first glance, Focus’ vision to become the world’s largest producer of low-cost, high grade graphite seems a monumental challenge. Closer inspection of quite how impressive the resource, exploration potential, processing technology and funding secured actually are, reveals it to be a fitting one for the company." 

" “With the high grade of the graphite content in the ore in the ground we’ll become the lowest cost producer in the world and enable many new high profile applications.” 

Focus Metals verfügt bekannterweise über die hochgradigste Graphitlagerstätte der Welt. Die hohen Gehalte werden sich insbesondere positiv auf die Kosten auswirken, da viel weniger Erz aus dem Boden geholt werden muss. Zweitens ist das Erz in dieser Lagerstätte um ein Vielfaches wertvoller als das Erz in Northern Graphite's Mine. Und drittens kann Focus Metals nach dem Verarbeitungsprozess (refining facility), der direkt nach der Förderung durchgeführt wird, das wertvollste Graphit (Gehalt von >99%) für die Industrie produzieren. Focus plant ebenfalls in 2013 die Produktion aufzunehmen. Die jährliche Produktion soll dann zukünftig mindestens 25.000 Tonnen Graphit betragen. Die gegenwärtige Ressource würde für eine Produktion über einen Zeitraum von ebenfalls 40 Jahren ausreichen. Jedoch wird Focus dieses Jahr noch eine neue Ressourcenschätzung vorlegen. Focus Metals treuer Partner bleibt ein Tochterunternehmen von IAMGOLD, mit dem der Deal um das Lac Knife Projekt damals durchgeführt wurde.

Es wird auf jeden Fall ein spannendes Rennen, und beide Werte können von steigenden bzw. stabilen Graphit-Preisen bereits mittelfristig enorm profitieren. Die meisten anderen Unternehmen, die nämlich erst vor kurzer Zeit auf den Graphit-Express aufgesprungen sind, sind junge Explorer mit großteils unentwickelten early stage Projekten. Diese werden allgemein überhaupt erst in mehreren Jahren die Chance haben, Richtung Produktion voranzuschreiten. 

Der Schwerpunkt von Grafoid liegt auf der Verwaltung von wachstumsstarken anpassbaren Grapheninvestitionen, -patenten und –anwendungen sowie der Entwicklung eines skalierbaren Graphenverfahrens, das direkt aus unaufbereitetem Rohgraphit (vornehmlich vom unternehmenseigenen Projekt Lac Knife) einzigartiges Graphen herstellt. Graphoid erbringt ebenfalls für Bergbauunternehmen, Lieferfirmen, Herstellern und verarbeitenden Unternehmen dieser Stoffe technische Beratungsdienstleistungen hinsichtlich Graphen und seiner chemischen Eigenschaften.

Am 23. Dezember 2011 unterzeichnete Grafoid eine Absichtserklärung (die „Absichtserklärung“) mit einem ausländischen privaten Unternehmen (das „private Unternehmen“). Gemäß den Bedingungen der Transaktion soll das private Unternehmen nach der erfolgreichen Aushandlung eines exklusiven Lizenzvertrags mit einer ausländischen Universität für die zum Patent angemeldete Technologie in Bezug auf die Abblätterung von Graphit unter Anwendung von rohem Graphitgestein eine erste Teilzahlung in Höhe von 500.000 US$ erhalten. Das Darlehen von Focus soll es Grafoid ermöglichen, eine solche Zahlung zu tätigen. In Zusammenhang mit dem Darlehen von Focus hat Chiu ebenfalls Stimmrechtsanteile am privaten Unternehmen (25%) verpfändet; Grafoid besitzt nun 50% dieser Stimmrechtsanteile, während die restlichen 25% von einem Professor an dieser Universität gehalten werden. Chiu ist der anerkannte Erfinder dieses zum Patent angemeldeten Verfahrens, das durch die Anwendung der einzigartigen Graphitflocken des Unternehmens, die hochwertig genug für Technologieanwendungen sind, entstanden ist.

Am 3. Mai 2012 wird das Unternehmen die außerordentliche Jahreshauptversammlung der Aktionäre (die „Versammlung“) abhalten und die Zustimmung der neutralen Aktionäre in Zusammenhang mit der Gliederung von Grafoid und den damit verbundenen Transaktionen ersuchen. Das Unternehmen erwartet, das für die Versammlung angefertigte Informationsrundschreiben am oder um den 30. März 2012 auszusenden.

Zum Zeitpunkt dieser Mitteilung besitzt Focus 40% der Aktien von Grafoid, während Economo, York und Chiu jeweils 20% der Grafoid-Aktien halten. Gemäß den Bedingungen der einstimmigen Aktionärsvereinbarung von Grafoid (die „Aktionärsvereinbarung“) zwischen Focus Metals, Economo, York und Chiu muss Focus Metals einen Betrag von 1.500.000 C$ an Grafoid zahlen, um seinen Besitzanteil an Grafoid aufrechtzuerhalten. Diese Zahlung soll getätigt werden, nachdem Focus Metals die notwendige Zustimmung der Aktionäre bei der Versammlung eingeholt hat. Das Darlehen in Höhe von 500.000 US$ soll es Grafoid erlauben, gemäß der Absichtserklärung die erste Meilensteinzahlung an das private Unternehmen zu tätigen, und wird Teil der 1.500.000 C$ sein, die das Unternehmen gemäß der Aktionärsvereinbarung an Grafoid zahlen muss.

Am 26. Januar 2012 genehmigten die unabhängigen Mitglieder des Board of Directors des Unternehmens die Gliederung von Grafoid und die dazugehörigen Transaktionen. Am 20. Februar 2012 erhielt das Unternehmen in diesem Zusammenhang die vorbehaltliche Zustimmung der TSX Venture Exchange (die „vorbehaltliche Zustimmung der TSXV“). In Übereinstimmung mit der vorbehaltlichen Zustimmung der TSXV sowie den Regelungen und Statuten der TSX Venture Exchange muss die Beteiligung von Focus Metals an Grafoid gemäß der Aktionärsvereinbarung von den neutralen Aktionären des Unternehmens bestätigt werden. Die Transaktion ist der endgültigen behördlichen Zustimmung vorbehalten.

Sollte eine solche Zustimmung eingeholt werden, werden die Darlehensvereinbarung und die verschiedenen Aktienverpfändungen aufgekündigt werden und der Betrag von 500.000 US$ wird als Teil der 1.500.000 C$, die von Focus gemäß der Aktionärsvereinbarung an Grafoid gezahlt werden müssen, erachtet werden. Im Falle, dass die Gliederung von Grafoid und die dazugehörigen Transaktionen nicht bei der Versammlung von den neutralen Aktionären des Unternehmens genehmigt werden, bleiben die Darlehensvereinbarung und die Aktienverpfändungen bestehen.

Profil

Focus Metals Inc. ist ein aufstrebendes, mittelständisches Junior-Graphit-, Minenerschließungs- und Technologieunternehmen. Das Unternehmen verfügt über die weltweit hochhaltigsten (ungefähr 16 %) Graphitressourcen für Technologieanwendungen. Ziel des Unternehmens ist es, als kostengünstigster Produzent von hochwertigem Graphit für den Einsatz im Technologiebereich eine marktführende Stellung einzunehmen.

Für nähere Informationen zu Grafoid Inc. besuchen Sie bitte die Webseite unter www.grafoid.com oder wenden Sie sich an:

Gary Economo
President und Chief Executive Officer
Focus Metals Inc.
+1-613-691-1091 DW 101
gary@focusmetals.ca

Die TSX Venture Exchange und deren Regulierungsorgane (in den Statuten der TSX Venture Exchange als Regulation Services Provider bezeichnet) übernehmen keinerlei Verantwortung für die Angemessenheit oder Genauigkeit dieser Meldung.

Our intrepid researchers put a flake of graphite between Scotch tape and pulled it apart. The graphite split, and split, and split until they had a single layer: a sheet of graphite one atom thick.

Thus, graphene was born.

Geim and Novoselov won the Nobel Prizes in 2010 for their discovery. Since then, hundreds of researchers the world over have jumped on the bandwagon in an effort to make this incredible material useful.

What can it do? you ask. Well, I'll tell you...

Miracle Product

Graphene has a high strength-to-weight ratio, making it the perfect material for use in automobiles, rockets, boats, windmill blades, and airplanes.

Nikhil Koratkar, professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer, said:

I’ve been working in nanocomposites for 10 years, and graphene is the best one I’ve ever seen in terms of mechanical properties. Graphene is far superior to carbon nanotubes or any other known nanofiller in transferring its exceptional strength and mechanical properties to a host material.

Not only does graphene have the strength of a flat Buckyball, but it makes excellent transistors.

The sheets are so thin, you can control the binary on/off switch by applying an electric field. This is impossible to do with metals because you can't make metal films thin enough without losing transmission abilities.

As a result, graphene-based transistors can run at higher frequencies and with more efficiency than the silicon transistors in common use today.

That means graphene is faster and uses less power.

Furthermore, graphene can replace indium-based electronics for light-emitting diodes. This means lower-cost display screens in mobile devices.
 

The benefits continue:

• Graphene can be used to store hydrogen for fuel cell powered vehicles.
• Graphene is used in medical sensors to diagnose diseases. This miracle material has a unique property in that it has a wide surface area with which it attracts certain molecules that are sensitive to particular diseases.
• A researcher named Fazel Yavari has developed graphene foam: “a new sensor to detect extremely small quantities of hazardous gases. The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute doctoral student harnessed the power of the world’s thinnest material, graphene, to create a device that is durable, inexpensive to make, and incredibly sensitive.”
• Graphene is resistant to powerful acids and alkalis, and so can be used as an inert coating.
• It can be used as an ultra-capacitor with better performance than batteries.
• The University of Technology in Sydney has developed a graphene paper that is super thin, yet strong enough to be used in rockets. And as graphene doesn't show up on radar, it would invisible.

Graphene is the material of the future. But like rare earth metals, it is in limited supply...

 

Ein neues informatives Interview mit Bob Moriarty - u.a. über den Graphit-Sektor - wurde gestern online gestellt:

graphitestocksblog.agoracom.com/2012/03/26/...d-for-500-gains/

As such, when someone like Bob Moriarty speaks, it behooves all of us to listen.  So what did we talk about today?

1. Why the explosion of interest, investment and growth in new graphite mine development? Is it for real?

2. Why graphite is an analog of oil.

3. Why the present ratio of the XAU (Philly Gold and Silver Index) over gold almost guarantees a 500% return on gold shares over the next two years.

4. Why the banking system is going to collapse / The implications of $708 trillion dollars in derivatives.

5. Middle East tension

This was a great interview.  One of the best we’ve had with a major market commentator, which have included the likes of  Eric Sprott, JF Tardif, Barry Ritholtz , Paul Kedrosky and Eric Coffin.  What made it one of our better ones? Though I agree with much that Bob had to say, I challenged him by playing Devil’s Advocate and arguing the case as presented by Wall Street and the mass media.  Though Bob didn’t budge and argued his case even harder, he was kind of enough to tell me how pleased he was with the interview.

The ultimate judge will be you, so listen in on the first few minutes and see if it carries you through to the fireworks at the end.

On behalf of myself and the entire listening audience, I want to thank Bob for taking time out of his Sunday to speak with us. 

A press release dated June 17, 2010, on the Europa.eu website, the official website of the EU, titled Report Forecasts Shortages of 14 Critical Mineral Raw Materials states that “For the critical raw materials, their high supply risk is mainly due to the fact that a high share of the worldwide production mainly comes from a handful of countries: China (antimony, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, graphite, indium, magnesium, rare earths, tungsten), Russia (platinum group metals), the Democratic Republic of Congo (cobalt, tantalum) and Brazil (niobium and tantalum). This production concentration, in many cases, is compounded by low substitutability and low recycling rates.”

The graphite market primarily includes three types of graphite: amorphous graphite, flake graphite and lump graphite. Each type occurs in different types of ore deposits. The many traditional and emerging uses of graphite have been detailed in various posts on GrahiteBlog already. However here’s a very brief rundown.

Historical applications include the use of graphite in pencils, steelmaking, brake linings, foundry facings and lubricants. These applications require mostly amorphous and lump graphite and the automotive and steel industries account for the majority of consumption. Graphite is used to augment to carbon content of steel and in turn it increases the strength of the steel and makes it capable of withstanding higher temperatures. It is estimated that the steel industry and the automotive industry grow by 5% per year.

The energy sector also requires graphite for pebble-bed nuclear reactors, lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells and photovoltaic panels. These applications are propelling the increased demand for high-grade, large-flake graphite and as green energy technologies become more economical and more prevalent the demand for graphite will also rise. Graphite is also key component of vanadium redox battery technology that requires 300 tonnes of flake graphite for 1,000 megawatts of storage. Production of the vanadium redox battery is expected to rise with the increase alternative energy such as wind and solar power. The combination of vanadium and graphite enable long-term storage or an unlimited capacity of excess energy and this technology is a solution to interrupted power production often associated with wind and solar energy.

Lithium ion batteries are widely used in consumer electronics like cell phones, laptops and power tools. These batteries are replacing nickel-metal-hydride batteries used in electric vehicles, electric motorcycles and scooters. Interestingly, the lithium-ion battery’s name does not reflect that fact they contain 20-times more graphite than lithium. Future demand for consumer electronics is also forecasted to increase and this will also increase the demand for graphite. It is estimated that the demand for graphite for use in lithium-ion batteries will grow 25% per year meaning that the production of lithium-ion batteries would require more than 1.6 million tonnes of high-grade flake graphite during the next decade. Considering that electric vehicle (EV) production is forecasted to grow to as much as 6 million units and that each EV requires 40 pounds of graphite, 240 million pounds of graphite will be needed to meet that demand.

The quality of flake graphite depends on grade and particle size. These factors also determine its price with most consumers of flake graphite preferring to use high-grade and large-flake in their products. For example amorphous graphite for steelmaking trades for about $850 per tonnes whereas flake graphite depending on the flake size is being sold for $2,000 to $3,000 per tonne.

The supply of graphite is not experiencing the same growth as its demand. A recent report by Canaccord states “Annual flake graphite production will have to increase by a factor of six by 2020 to meet incremental lithium carbonate requirements for batteries.”  

Quelle: www.graphiteblog.com/2012/03/...h-so-allow-me-to-make-a-f.html

Graphene Ready for Commercialisation.

The Centre for Graphene Science has now got 44 researchers plus the same number again in post-docs and PhD students.

Graphene is now ready for commercialisation, according to the presenters at the Centre for Graphene Science, a cooperative effort by the Universities of Bath and Exeter in the southwest of England. They are probably right, although the jump from lab to industrial application to products in High Street stores is usually easier said than done.  

My best guess is that apart from some touch screen consumer electrics, where some graphene products are just starting to come on to the market we are probably still a couple of years away before we see graphene products really start to intrude into our lives. Early contenders are in the Lithium-ion batteries needed for electric vehicles, and for megawatt grid storage projects to tame the intermittency aspect of wind and solar energy production. In time they could also store the non peak-time output of all existing power stations, making the problems of peak electricity demand a thing of the past.  Other areas of relatively quick to market products, I suspect will be in chemical and biological sensors. Military and police needs for better mobile bomb detectors is an obvious priority, while better industrial, medical and water filtration systems is another. Commercialisation, one way or another is coming. Next decade, I suspect, we will all wonder how we got along before graphene. How did people live before electricity?

Below, coverage this week’s presentations.  

Graphene ready for commercialisation

David Manners Thursday 29 March 2012 

Graphene is ready for commercialisation, according to a series of presentations yesterday at the Centre for Graphene Science set up by the Universities of Bath and Exeter.

Graphene may not be the wonder material which solves all the world’s problems but it has some compelling applications. It even has some claims to be a wonder material.

"As an electrical conductor at room temperature it is at least a factor of 10 better than silicon," said Professor Simon Bending of Bath University, "its thermal conductivity is 100 times more than copper; its optical properties are pretty wacky too – a single atomic graphene layer absorbs a remarkable 2.3% of incident light over a broad range of wavelengths; and it is the strongest material ever tested – 40 times stronger than steel and even stronger than diamond – it can be stretched 25% and still stays intact."

What’s more, according to Saverio Russo of Exeter University, GrapheXeter can be transparent – becoming more transparent the longer the wavelength of the light. It is also flexible, said Russo, and could be used to help with the scaling of resistive memory – providing memories that are dense, fast, flexible, transparent, bio-compatible, and robust with no end-of-life problems.

"Graphene is the only two-dimensional conducting membrane in nature," said David Horsell from Exeter University, "it is optically transparent, strong, flexible, stretchable and impermeable." No gas, not even helium, seeps through graphene.

Horsell is looking at sensors as being a rich area for graphene applications. Putting molecules of material on a graphene surface and measuring the effect demonstrates the extreme sensitivity of a graphene surface to other materials. "It can detect mechanically as well as thermally," said Horsell, "we can use that to make a sensor."

It can also be used in rapid DNA sequencing. 

Quelle: www.graphiteblog.com/2012/03/...y-for-commercialisation-1.html