Educating Non Miners

Source WikipediaUses of synthetic graphite[edit]

Invention of a process to produce synthetic graphite[edit]

A process to make synthetic graphite was invented by Edward Goodrich Acheson (1856–1931). In the mid-1890s, Acheson discovered that overheating carborundum, which he is also credited with discovering, produced almost pure graphite. While studying the effects of high temperature on carborundum, he had found that silicon vaporizes at about 4,150 °C (7,500 °F), leaving behind graphitic carbon. This graphite was another major discovery for him, and it became extremely valuable and helpful as a lubricant.[5]
In 1896 Acheson received a patent for his method of synthesizing graphite,[35] and in 1897 started commercial production.[5] The Acheson Graphite Co. was formed in 1899. In 1928 this company was merged with National Carbon Company (now GrafTech International). Acheson also developed a variety of colloidal graphite products including Oildag and Aquadag. These were later manufactured by the Acheson Colloids Co. (now Acheson Industries, a unit of Henkel AG).

Graphite recycling[edit]

The most common way of recycling graphite occurs when synthetic graphite electrodes are either manufactured and pieces are cut off or lathe turnings are discarded, or the electrode (or other) are used all the way down to the electrode holder. A new electrode replaces the old one, but a sizeable piece of the old electrode remains. This is crushed and sized, and the resulting graphite powder is mostly used to raise the carbon content of molten steel. Graphite-containing refractories are sometimes also recycled, but often not because of their graphite: the largest-volume items, such as carbon-magnesite bricks that contain only 15–25% graphite, usually contain too little graphite. However, some recycled carbon-magnesite brick is used as the basis for furnace-repair materials, and also crushed carbon-magnesite brick is used in slag conditioners. While crucibles have a high graphite content, the volume of crucibles used and then recycled is very small.
A high-quality flake graphite product that closely resembles natural flake graphite can be made from steelmaking kish. Kish is a large-volume near-molten waste skimmed from the molten iron feed to a basic oxygen furnace, and consists of a mix of graphite (precipitated out of the supersaturated iron), lime-rich slag, and some iron. The iron is recycled on site, leaving a mixture of graphite and slag. The best recovery process uses hydraulic classification (which utilizes a flow of water to separate minerals by specific gravity: graphite is light and settles nearly last) to get a 70% graphite rough concentrate. Leaching this concentrate with hydrochloric acid gives a 95% graphite product with a flake size ranging from 10 mesh down.

Imo all miners should provide more information about the minerals they are mining and their history of uses to non mining investors or at least refer them to Wikipedia if they believe the information provided therein is correct.