Graphite shipment reported in world industrial press

Industrial Minerals report = overseas interest and investment

IM Graphite News in Brief 20 – 26 March
By LAURA SYRETT
Published: Thursday, 26 March 2015
Valence ships first 20 tonnes graphite from Uley; National Graphene Institute opens in UK.
Australia’s Valence Industries Ltd has shipped its first graphite from the Uley graphite project in Port Lincoln, South Australia.
The 20-tonne shipment, which contained a range of flake sizes produced during the commissioning programme at the Valence’s existing processing plant at Uley, was trucked to Valence’s Port Adelaide handling facility in preparation for export.
Valence did not disclose the destination of its graphite but did say that customer demand ranged from refractories and foundries to batteries and biomedical applications, with orders covering the first 12 months of planned production from Uley.
The company’s Uley mine officially reopened in November 2014 and commissioning of the phase one plant is expected to be completed in the September quarter of this year. Production is targeted at 14,000 tpa, although at present the company is processing stockpiled material at the site rather than newly-mined ore.