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The Market for Graphite Has Not Gone Away; It Is Merely Taking a Nap
Posted on September 4, 2012 by Alessandro Bruno
Korean scientists have developed a battery that could revolutionize the portable electronics market. The battery has the appearance e of the commonly used lithium-ion batteries; however, the new battery is made up of nano-particles drenched in a graphite solution at the central core. As the current flows, the graphite helps to increase conductivity and the charging speed. The researchers found that this new graphite battery can achieve a full charge, through a normal domestic socket, at a rate anywhere from 30 to 120 times faster than a currently available Li-ion battery. This means that a cell phone battery that normally needs at least 2-3 hours to charge, could achieve a similar charge in anywhere from six minutes to less than one minute. The advantage over other fast-charging batteries is that the new graphite battery is also able to retain the charge: a minute or two for a 12 hour charge is a rather practical proposition. This new graphite battery is not yet ready for commercial distribution, nor is it known whether or not it will even make it into production. However, it does highlight the potential for the graphite market for batteries alone; not just electronics, car batteries are expected to see multi-fold demand. Graphite prices have dropped from up to USD$ 3,000/ton to USD$ 2,000/ton or less. These are still remarkable prices in the historical price context for graphite, which has typically been closer to USD$ 700 than not.
The current price valuations are a factor of the continuing worldwide economic recession – or slowdown. Graphite stocks have halved, or worse, as a consequence. Nevertheless, the drop is not a reflection of the actual value of graphite. In China, which has the fastest growing automobile market, electric cars are more popular than they are in the West, which suggests battery demand will surge – and that’s just one application. Graphite share price valuations have suffered in the past few months after buoying last April. While some analysts have interpreted this as the validation of their ‘bubble’ cries, the conditions that pushed graphite prices higher are still valid; so much so that the US State Department and the European Commission maintain that graphite is a critical mineral because of its applications in the development of batteries, steel, lightweight composites for aerospace and pebble bed nuclear reactors. The average mobile phone or laptop Li-ion battery already contains 20 times more graphite than it does lithium; the new Korean experimental batteries will need even greater proportions of graphite, which suggests that demand for graphite will increase by several factors before the end of the decade.
Until recently, and not unlike the situation for rare earths, China was seen as maintaining an unchallenged monopoly over graphite. Indeed, China supplies half of the graphite needs of Europe, Japan or North America (combined). Overall, China is said to account for 70% of world graphite production, but, this could change very soon as export restrictions and greater downstream processing comes on line in China. China itself will be cutting its own supply of graphite as new legislation comes into play, restricting the opening of new mines and closing many, failing to meet the new and tougher standards. Northern Graphite believes that little more than a tenth of graphite mines in China’s Hunan province will be left operational, as new production standards are adopted. Graphite suppliers in China will likely undergoing a consolidation and rationalization echoing the new provisions for rare earth miners. The graphite supply problem is that there are few active mines for this resource outside China and a few dozen are said to be needed in order to address demand.
There are some mines closer to reaching production stage than others, some of these featuring outstanding grades and varieties such as Northern Graphite or Focus Graphite – the latter also developing expertise in the scalable production of graphene. It makes sense to revisit and begin graphite mining projects in North America, as the same market conditions that drove its production to China some 25-20 years ago, are no longer valid. Airplanes were still made mostly of aluminum, Cellular phones did not exist then and computers existed only in special large rooms in large offices and factories – not in the average household. The demand for graphite over the rest of the decade might be best described as being acute, and the alarm of higher prices will be sounding soon enough, especially in view of the time needed to bring the new mining prospects to production. Even then, the mines that will truly make it are those able to extract high purity or flake graphite, such as the ‘Sri Lankan’ or the jumbo flake types. Surely, petroleum derived graphite will continue to fill the more basic and common applications from sports equipment to alloy additives or carbon fibre, however, naturally occurring flake graphite is the variety needed to meet the needs of the new technologies and applications. Ultimately, mines need time to proceed from exploration to production and the fastest to reach production will be able to best capture the wave. This entry was posted in Graphite Graphene Intel and tagged graphite by Alessandro Bruno. Bookmark the permalink.
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