Banking on future demand for graphite and graphene

Banking on future demand for graphite and graphene

Australian companies are searching high and low for new graphite deposits, and their hunt is seeing old mines reopen from Port Lincoln to northern Sweden.
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Photo: Valence Industries is the only graphite producer in Australia right now. (supplied: Valence Industries)

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Audio: Christopher Darby has banked on a future rise in demand for graphite (ABC Rural)

The only mine actually producing graphite for the market at the moment lay dormant for many years before Christopher Darby and his Valence Industries team saw its potential.
The Uley site, outside of Port Lincoln on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula, has played an important role in the city's past, and is now supplying high-tech manufacturers both in Australian and abroad with graphite.
Valence recently brought a new customer on board, adding to its list of customers using the company's graphite in batteries, medical applications and a range of materials.
With no open market for graphite, success is dependent on these companies being able to mine the ore and sell as well.
"You really have to understand why a customer needs to use it in that application, and work with them to deliver it in a way that is most effective for them," Darby said.
Valence also 'value-adds' to its graphite in South Australia, raising the purity of the ore it mines to exact specifications before offering it customers.
"You have to prove and qualify your production from your own facility," Mr Darby said.
"That means not only do you have to go through exploration and construction of your plant, you have to deliver production from that plant to the customers, and qualify it before they will really commit to long-term sales.
"That creates a drain on cash, and you need to be able to fill that gap to get you through to filling the pipeline of production."
In the lab

Photo: Dusan Losic says South Australia is a 'lucky country' because it holds more graphite resources than any other state. (Clint Jasper)

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Audio: Dusan Losic's research has applications in the environmental, agricultural and medical fields (ABC Rural)

The University of Adelaide has partnered with a number of junior SA explorers and Valence Industries to look into potential applications of graphene.
The School of Chemical Engineering's Losic Group, headed up by research professor Dusan Losic, is looking at environmental, medical and agricultural uses for the material.
"There really are no limits to its applications," he said.
The research could change or improve the way agricultural seeds are coated, drugs are delivered in the body, water is purified, as well as how the ore is actually extracted and manufactured.
Outside of Losic's lab, others around world are looking at painted batteries and inks, as well as conductive coatings for aircraft.
The Korean technology manufacturer Samsung leads the world in graphene patent applications, with around 200 to its name.
Researchers have known of graphene for over a decade, but the limited amount of commercial product on the market has some questioning the hype that surrounds it.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-21/australian-graphene-explorers/6636448

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