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Quest for Commercially Viable Graphene will Stimulate Graphite Mining Industry outside of China
Graphene is no doubt one of the ‘wonder’ materials of our time. Despite its one atom thickness and chicken wire structure, researchers have found that graphene is extremely strong, perhaps the strongest material available today, and extremely conductive, which renders it ideal for use in countless applications from batteries to airframe composites and as cooling agents. Graphene has the potential to be used in applications representing all industrial sectors. However, unlike silicon, which is expected to be replaced by graphene, the new miracle material is not mass produced yet. Graphene, as a material, is still at the experimental stage and it is very expensive – it can cost as much as USD$ 40,000 a kilo at a specialized online graphene vendor called Graphene Supermarket.
From a purely mineralogical point of view, graphene results from the processing of large graphite flakes; it can be said that large flake graphite is made up by stacks of hundreds of graphene layers. In order to make graphene commercially viable, an inexpensive and efficient production method must be developed. It is also clear that graphite mining companies involved in the extraction of large or jumbo flake highly pure graphite such as Northern Graphite Corp (TSXV: NGC) or Focus Metals (FMS – TSX-V), which is running a graphite project in Lac Knife in Quebec, will play a very important role in graphene’s development through dedicated subsidiaries. Focus Metals, for instance, says it is ready to start commercially viable graphene production in 2013. Nevertheless, the company is most excited about its research in graphene through its partner Grafoid Inc in which it has a 40% stake. Grafoid’s sole purpose is to develop a proprietary method of producing graphene more economically.
Grafoid claims to be close to a manufacturing approach that avoids oxidation of the material, which reduces its conductivity. Grafoid is quite confident that it has an economically viable graphene production process ready and says it will be ready to launch an experimental graphene producing plant by this summer. Haydale, a subsidiary of the British firm Carbon Limited claims to have devised a graphene production method that should lower the cost of the wonder material. Haydale is working with academic facilities including the University of Manchester, where graphene was first discovered and so far it has come up with a patented plasma technology to produce graphene nano-platelets from graphite powder. Interestingly; whereas the production of graphite in the past decade has mostly taken place in China, the development of graphene is taking place exclusively in Europe and North America. This will serve as an additional incentive for graphite mining companies outside of China. Quelle: http://www.graphiteblog.com/2012/04/...industry-outside-of-china.html
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