Prime1, a few weeks ago you wrote this on the HZR thread:
I understand that graphite pricing is impacted, not only by the graphite grade, but also by the nature of the other impurities, and, even more critically, by the size of the graphite flakes.
I would not expect a product of 90% graphite, of fine flake, and with significant iron oxide and silica (from the iron ore) to be worth more than US$500 per tonne. At that level, it would be suitable only for old, traditional applications, such as refractories and brake linings - a market which is going to be heavily over-supplied within a very few years. At 95% graphite, the value could rise to something between US$700 and $800, but it is really only if they can get it up to battery grade that the higher prices which have been bandied around, will actually come into consideration.
So here you are admitting that 95% purity graphite with impurities and small flake size is junk and only worth about US$700-800. Sounds like a certain Mozambique company I know who is struggling for contracts.
We do not know the flake size - which is an important consideration. IF that comes in at 100-150 micron diameter, and IF acid purification can raise the graphite content to 99.9% (which is a far-from-trivial challenge)
and don't SYR know it, then we can look at a value of perhaps $2000 per tonne.
Don't forget shipping costs to China. IF (yes, another big IF!) that 100-micron graphite can be spheroidised, to produce spherical graphite, suitable for batteries, then we can expect a value in the US$3000 to $3500 range. After performing the last step (and it's definitely not the least complex step) in producing battery material, namely, coating the spherical graphite, the value goes up toUS$7000+ per tonne.
Whether all this is likely to be economic is something we just do not know.
Hello SYR. Certainly, it will not be cheap to use a required 0.6 to 0.7 tonnes of sulphuric acid per ten tonnes of 90% feed, to dissolve the iron oxide, plus some indeterminate amount of hydrofluoric acid
(you better lie down, that is twice you have used the word acid in the same paragraph) to remove the unknown quantity of silica.
All of the sudden you are a expert on acid treating graphite. Amazing. Have you received a white paper from SYR showing costs?
I think v8man nailed it when he said Magnis ships straight to the USA or Europe at 98% purity and then purifying there to 99.95% is the only way to go. Chemical free.
http://hotcopper.com.au/threads/new...728718/page-131?post_id=17408961#.Vx1ZYdQmKrU
(20min delay)