After reading the good Doc's earlier post looking at the wider...

After reading the good Doc's earlier post looking at the wider picture, I decided to analyse the current Aluminium market worldwide, to see what the level of potential  for these Aluminium/Graphene composites might be.

Current annual production of Aluminium is around 57 million tonnes globally.

What part of that might see benefit by introducing graphene into the picture.

Let's be realistic, conservative even.

Let's say that after 3-4 years, about 1% of the Aluminium industry might have found enough benefit to replace current Aluminium use with a Al/Gr composite. (Some production will replace materials other than Aluminium)

That would be about 600,000 tonnes of composite produced annually.

It looks like 2% by weight of graphene in the composite gives the best results. That would need 12,000 tonnes of the good stuff. (graphene)

There's about 90% conversion of high purity crystal vein graphite to graphene in the FGR production cells. so 13,300 tonnes of graphite would need to be mined to meet that level of production.

Now, what about pricing. For this sort of application, and at this volume of annual production to a bulk market, it is unlikely, even considering the premium material being used, that the $100,000 mentioned previously would be feasible.

So again, being realistic, conservative even, lets use a figure of $20,000 per tonne.

That would give annual revenues of $240 million to FGR  for this section of the market. Margins even at this level are impressive.


Is this all possible ?

Current production levels would have to be lifted by a factor of around 50x.

There is plenty of the special crystal vein in the ground. Over 300,000 tonnes have been lifted from the government mine at Kahatangaha, over a mine life of 140 years. That's an average of over 2,000 tonnes per annum from one mine - which has a few shafts, and is now operating at around 600m below ground.

FGR's original plan was to have 20 shafts operating - they have plenty of prospective sites, having identified 220 potentially commercial mine sites that showed historic mining activity.

So the resource is probably there.

The next question - is the capability there to expand to this level within 3-4 years. Well, obviously if this sort of demand was there, there are plenty of Aussie specialised underground mining outfits that would be capable of lending a hand.

Will it happen.

Again, being realistic, it will take great leadership, vision, and determination to build a team that could put all this together. It will also take some good fortune, solid research and development in the factories in Germany,  and negotiating skills to bring together the development of the technology.

The gift that the German investor has brought to FGR is an exciting prospect.

We can dream, can't we.

A question.

Will the identification of the investor cause any problems to the development of this potential?

I can hear you all screaming for the name - yes, I've had a couple of emails from members of the long termers group already. But I just have this question in my mind about why the news has been kept from us so far.

We need to be responsible - and protect our investment at the same time. Probably a good idea to find out, if I can, if it causes any problems.

So, if you can, just hold on for a bit. (A day or two won't make much difference!).

Sorry about that.

It was a fun weekend though.