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Murdock Capital Graphite Symposium: Focus Metals, Strike Graphite, Galaxy Capital and more
Graphite Industry Gathers in Toronto for the Graphite Express on May 2nd
Packing for the Chicago Resource Investment Conference tonight, I plan on discussing the rising stars featured on GraphiteBlog over the next 2 days. This is an outstanding event for investors, and when I back on Sunday, we will be ramping up for participation with our friends at Resource Clips for the Graphite Express conference in Toronto on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 next door to our offices in the Sheraton. The event that many describe as 'presentation speed dating' will have 15 graphite companies presenting in record format. So here are my cliff notes on the companies who will be presenting in alphabetic order to prep everyone attending on who's who:
Amseco Exploration Ltd. (TSXV: AEL): On March 15, 2012, Amseco Exploration announced that it would acquire 25,362 hectares of land in a district known to host multiple graphite occurrences. Amseco Exploration will have 100% control of the 469 claims. As part of its strategic plan announced in February, Amseco Exploration has decided to expand its traditional precious metals exploration activities to also include industrial minerals. This decision was made based on rapid growth of the market for graphite and other industrial minerals. Amseco Exploration shares are trading at $0.05 with a 52-week high of $0.14.
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COMMENT: Are we in the dawn of the graphene age?
13 April 2012- Industrial Minerals
Graphene is already found in paints and inks, but can its full potential be realised?
Keywords: graphite, graphene, paints, inks, electronics, Focus
The interest surrounding carbon chemistry’s latest wonder material was in plain evidence earlier this week as academics and commercial developers of graphene gathered to pool ideas and showcase their research at the Graphene 2012 conference held in Brussels.
The fabrication of graphene, a two-dimensional monolayer of carbon atoms, has come a long way since it was discovered in 2004 by the Nobel Prize-winning scientists, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov.
While Geim and Novoselov used the ‘scotch tape’ method to extract graphene layers from graphite, new methods have since been developed; with the focus being on the manufacture of pristine, economically scalable graphene for a whole host of potential applications.
“We believe that graphene will have a disruptive impact on technology, and we want to be there when it happens,” said Stephano Borini of the UK’s Nokia Research Centre.
Nokia’s interest in graphene is, according to Borini, as a technology platform from which to develop a variety of “concept devices” including energy harvesters, flexible batteries, supercapacitors and electrotactile touchscreens.
Chun-Yung Sung, from the US technology and consulting corporation IBM, talked delegates through a range of possible uses for graphene – grown on silicon carbide wafers – including flexible e-newspapers and transparent phones.
In addition, Elena Obraztova of the Prokhorov General Physics Institute, RAS, Russia described how graphene could vastly enhance the spectral range of lasers when compared with those based on carbon nanotubes.
Jesus de la Fuente of Spain’s GRAPHENEA, meanwhile, was optimistic about trends towards using graphene films in batteries.
Commercialisation underway
While graphene has been pejoratively referred to by sceptics as ‘Star Trek stuff’, it would appear that some developers of the material are already orbiting in the nearer reaches of the solar system.
Indeed, graphene can be found in highly-resistant aircraft paints and security-sensitive packaging in US supermarkets.
UK-based company Haydale Ltd, which uses bespoke Split Plasma technology to characterise carbon nano-materials, revealed that it was supplying graphene to developers of coatings used by the likes of NASA, Airbus and Boeing.
Christy Martin from Maryland, US-based Vorbeck Materials Corp., explained how the company’s graphene-based inks, produced under a licence from Princeton University, are being used to provide anti-theft protection for everyday consumer items such as meat, CDs and razor blades.
Such applications might be a far cry from sensory touchscreens and transparent cell phones but both Haydale and Vorbeck argue that their products are evidence of graphene’s accessibility as a material that can be manufactured and used cost-effectively for practical purposes.
Hatching the golden egg
With significant sums being ploughed into graphene research all over the world, Canada-based company Grafoid Inc.’s Dr Gordon Chiu contended that it was unwise to view graphene as bullion in itself.
“Our goal is not to make money out of selling graphene as graphene,” Chiu, Grafoid’s VP, explained, “but to buffer and co-develop applications using the material.”
In Grafoid’s view, it is not graphene’s golden egg but rather what can be hatched from it that is really valuable.
Chiu even suggested that selling graphene as a raw material may actually hinder the process of commercialising the material because it added another step to the value chain; making subsequent products prohibitively expensive.
Grafoid Inc. is a 40% owned subsidiary of Canadian graphite junior Focus Metals Inc., which is developing the Lac Knife deposit in Quebec.
This arrangement, which gives Grafoid control over its graphene raw material source, is –according to Chiu – what will make the company uniquely competitive in the business. However, Focus’ high purity graphene is unlikely to come online until the end of 2013.
Cautious optimism
Despite the confidence placed by many investors and researchers in graphene’s potentially game- changing qualities, some participants at the Brussels conference remained cautious about the graphene golden goose.
A representative of Haydale Ltd expressed scepticism about the hype surrounding invisible, super- fast electronic components.
Others queried the environmental impact of the reduced graphite oxide (RGO) and chemical vapour deposition (CVD) methods for manufacturing graphene, which could cast a shadow over the material’s clean-tech image.
There is also the unsolved and unique problem of graphene’s lack of a band gap; the gap between the energy of an electron when it is bound to an atom, and the conduction band where it is free to move around.
On one hand this is a positive property, allowing for unique energy abilities, but on the other it means graphene cannot be used in transistors – its lack of band gap means it does not provide the isolation necessary to be used as an on-off switch.
What is not lacking, however, is a passionate enthusiasm to realise graphene’s promise, with academics and companies alike now aligning themselves for the dawn of the graphene age.
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From today's Industrial Minerals
Commercialising graphene
May 2012
A universally acceptable standard for graphene, which retains most or all of its high purity and energy properties, could arguably come from a graphite source that has undergone little modification. Grafoid Inc’s Dr. Gordon Chiu outlines the case.
Graphene’s material capabilities provide the material sciences community with a tremendous opportunity to change the world.
Discovered in 2004 by a simple mechanical process using Scotch Tape, graphene, derived from graphite, is a single atom thick sheet of sp2 hybridized carbon atoms.
In 2010, the discovery of graphene won a Nobel Prize for its discoverers and has since been part of intense scientific research as a wonder material because of its significant mechanical, electrical and thermal properties.
Graphene’s existence provides opportunities to enhance structures, improve energy storage and benefit our lives from myriad enhanced, future technologies. Graphene’s properties exceed those of graphite’s thermal, electrical and mechanical properties.
Due to its expensive production costs, graphene’s commercialisation will come once mass production processes make it affordable - and specifically tailored to suit unique application requirements.
For example, a graphene material required for microprocessors would require different engineering than a graphene material for lithium batteries, or a graphene material for biomedical nano-structural, or a polymer-based application.
In a recent speech to the graphene community in Brussels, I proposed the adoption of a global standard for economically scalable graphene as a prerequisite to resolving the affordability issue.
While the material science world has been focused on discovering and developing downstream applications, Grafoid focused on two key contributing elements, namely: a reliable scalable graphene process that is economically affordable and reproducible, and; a particular graphite source, Focus Graphite’s Lac Knife, Quebec, high grade deposit.
Most graphene derived from graphite used for application development during the last eight years has been crushed, pulverized, oxidised, reduced and leeched by strong acids. This graphene is called reduced graphene oxide and has sacrificed some of the unique qualities of graphene (ie. electrical) in order to achieve scalability. This is not an acceptable solution.
In Grafoid’s search for the optimal solution, one of our leading investment projects resulted in a breakthrough high-energy bilayer and trilayer graphene from a safe, non-destructive graphite extraction process creating an economically scalable, sustainable solution.
Using a high quality, high concentrate graphite source assisted in the optimisation of, and the creation of a universally applicable, agnostic process.
Grafoid invests and manages investments in high-growth, scalable graphene projects, patents and material applications.
We bring knowledge in graphene, resolve scalability issues, tailor our graphene for unique applications, and; we provide solutions for achieving success.
We also provide technical advisory and consulting services for graphene and its chemistry to miners, suppliers, manufacturers and processors of graphene materials.??
Towards monetising graphene?
Because of Grafoid’s unique relationship with Focus Graphite, we embraced a notion and came to understand that downstream benefits could be built upon an upstream foundation of a graphite source and a viable process.
Along the way, fate and nature intervened resulting in the creation of a mineral and scientific knowledge base which will lead us to commercial breakthroughs and, in time, the monetisation of nature’s new wonder material, graphene.
As chief scientist for Focus Graphite and a co-founder and vice president of Grafoid, our two companies enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship in both scientific and business terms. The result: we have the potential to effect change in graphene applications.
In our particular investment, graphene building blocks derived from super-concentrate graphite deposits (any deposit with greater than 15% graphite) can be used to create affordable constructs for a variety of uses in carbon-based nanostructures.
Focus Graphite holds such a deposit. The highly ordered layers in the structure of Focus Graphite’s 16% graphite deposit - similar to highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (h.o.p.g.) - was key. Our relationship provided a foundation that enabled Grafoid to invest in and manage the investment in a novel exfoliation and transformation process that produces a unique kind of graphene.
The result is a scalable approach for a high quality graphene that maintains its highly conductive properties because it works not only on the super-concentrate deposit, but any source of flake graphite with concentrations greater than 15%.
The key, cost-mitigating elements are the source mated to a novel process. Transforming Focus Graphite’s high-grade, raw, unprocessed ore - directly to graphene - created a cost saving never before accomplished.
In our view, a universally acceptable standard for graphene might start by consideration of a non-crushed, non-pulverized graphite source resulting in the retention of all or most of its original, naturally formed, high-purity, high-energy properties.
A collaborative approach
One of the logical applications of graphite - and now, graphene - is lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries.
Since 1984, graphite’s properties of delivering good cycle life as the anode in lithium batteries has been the subject of intense scientific study and global implementation. The exact theoretical capacity being 372mAh/gram.
Application research and development of next generation lithium batteries found that few layer graphene (FLG) can provide 500-600mAh/gram as graphene anodes.
The difficulty among battery manufacturers has been finding the right graphene supplier. In addition to having the lowest cost graphene, this material must not only be optimised, but tailored to shape, size and formulation. Grafoid’s objective is to resolve tailoring issues via partnering.
We are confident in our investment and welcome downstream partnerships in our collective search for the perfect combination of cathode, electrolyte, membrane and tailored graphene anode.
Since assuming my duties with Focus Graphite just over a year ago, I brought with me the collective vision of bankers, chemists, chemical engineers, physicists, and politicians.
Together we agreed that graphene production should be safe, environmentally sustainable and as impactful as graphene’s first achievement in the Nobel Prize accomplishment for Physics in 2010.
Today, I can say our collaborative group has been joined by academics, commercial and industrial partners who share the same belief and interest in working together to create world-changing graphene applications that are affordable in all sectors.
It is important, if not critical to our future success that we look to the past and learn from our mistakes by adopting a sweeping determination to avoid failure.
Carbon nanotubes consumed a decade in time and effort and nearly a trillion dollars worth of investment. It culminated in lost research opportunities for a better ‘wonder material’.
We need to develop a better understanding of what is important to the graphene R&D community. And we have a primary responsibility not to doom ourselves to another decade of failure.
In less than a year and with a budget of thousands of dollars - not millions - we have begun creating the benchmarks for economically scalable, pristine graphene.
We did so because a junior Canadian graphite mining developer had the vision to investigate the properties of its mineral resource at a time when our community was consumed almost exclusively with application development but recognized the need for an upstream partner.
The challenge for scientists today is to aim for a
.50/lb production cost for pristine graphene in the future, down from its current stratospheric price of $20,000/lb.
While we are still years away from achieving that goal, eliminating costs is the key to any kind of commercial success for graphene in the future. Our industry is light years ahead of the markets.
Monetising graphene, in our view, begins with a qualifying standard or universal benchmark that leads to the de-risking of early-stage investments.
Lowering graphene’s costs while maintaining a high-quality product is a foundational first step to closing the gap between research and investment.?
Quelle: www.stockhouse.com/Bullboards/...=2&s=FMS&t=LIST
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Why Graphite is the High Tech Commodity of the Future
by Dr. Alex Cowie on 27 April 2012
..
This is a commodity that drove the last bull market and made Australian investors rich. But it won’t be the commodity that drives the NEXT bull market.
In fact, it’s getting harder for Aussie resource investors to find new areas of the market to make money from. Mainstream commodities are well known, and often the easy money has been made already.
The good news I want to bring to you is that there is a new generation of investing opportunities in the world of strategic minerals..
Link: www.moneymorning.com.au/20120427/...mmodity-of-the-future.html
Canadian graphite producers prepare for boom
PAV JORDAN — MINING REPORTER
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, May. 01, 2012 7:30PM EDT
Move over rare earths – graphite is the new darling of the mining industry.
Canadian graphite miners are angling to be high-end suppliers to the global lithium ion battery market, where companies such as LG, Samsung, Mitsubishi and Hitachi are fuelling growing demand for new technologies ranging from smartphones and laptops to electric cars..
Link: www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/...boom/article2419656/
Da haben die von Goldinvest wohl die australische Focus Minerals mit Focus Metals verwechselt, oder liege ich da falsch? forum-media.finanzen.net/forum/smiley/smiley-undecided.gif" style="max-width:560px" alt="" />
die Bedeutung und Verwendung von Graphite: www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/03/...+03-May-2012+HUG20120503
@ Suppenkasper: Jau, habe das Thema gestern schon im SGH Thread angesprochen.. das wurde wohl verwechselt ;)
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Yes, sehr spannende Sache - es ist lange her, dass Focus einen Trading Halt hatte. Es war dennoch anzunehmen, dass so etwas am Tag der AGM kommen würde, und die fand gestern statt..
Von den news her steht viel Mögliches an, z.B. Scoping Study, Offtake Agreement, JV-Partner (Grafoid), mining permits, wide district exploration program etc.
Graphite proving resilient in tough markets, constrained supply expected
blog.agoracom.com/2012/05/04/...acom+(Agoracom+Small-Cap+Blog)
Okay, war klar, dass ne Aussetzung hier auch stattfindet... Nur eine Sache verwundert mich.. Um 8:00 Uhr hatte ich geguckt auf allen deutschen Börsenplätzen, sprich Frankfurt, Stuttgart, München und Tradegate, wo FMS gelistet ist. Alles okay! Nun fehlt plötzlich (8:50 Uhr) "München und Tradegate" als Börsenplatz? Liegt das an meinem Broker oder was ist da los?
Der Großen gehen Sammeln! Top Agreement mit Hydroquebec!
www.marketwire.com/press-release/...sx-venture-fms-1653417.htm
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Wertung | Antworten | Thema | Verfasser | letzter Verfasser | letzter Beitrag | |
71 | Focus Graphite Inc. WKN: A1JYY6 | brunneta | Bayerwaldzocker | 25.04.21 03:17 | ||
4![]() | 254 | Abnahmeverträge mit Grafoid: | erfg | Bady89 | 25.04.21 01:48 | |
5![]() | 55 | Graphit, auf dem Weg zum Mainstream Rohstoff | Lumia920 | Siro100 | 24.04.21 22:58 | |
4![]() | 183 | Graphitexplorer und Quasiproduzenten | ferruccio | Italymaster | 07.06.12 13:47 |