Graphite

This article / webpage appears to be from around 2012, but I now know a bit more about graphite, and now I think that this find is more significant than I first thought . . .
Not my work - credit to
http://graphiteoneresources.com/investors/graphite_101/
Graphite 101

What is Graphite?

Graphite is the 15th most abundant mineral in the Earth's crust and has three forms: diamonds, coal, and graphite.  Graphite comes in the form of Carbon (C) and is often denoted as Cg, with the 'g' specifying the form of carbon.  Graphite is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity and has the highest natural strength and stiffness of any material known today.  It maintains its strength and stability to temperatures in excess of 3,600°.  At the same time it is one of the lightest of all reinforcing agents and has high natural lubricity.
There are three types of graphite found naturally; these are flake, lump, and amorphous.  Flake graphite commands the highest demand due to the versatility of use yet has the lowest supply.  This creates a premium price for flake graphite with larger flake sizes having higher prices than a smaller flake size of equal purity.

Graphite Supply & Demand

• Graphite demand has been pinned as an approximately $12 Billion market (USD)
• Supply for graphite is generally grouped into two categories:
  • 40% of graphite supply is in flake-form
  • 60% of graphite supply is in amorphous-form
• Global consumption of natural graphite has increased from ~600,000 tons in 2000 to 1.1 M tons in 2011
  • Global graphite reserves are thought to be around 71 million tons
  • Flake graphite production is approximately 400,000 tons per year
• Demand from BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and emerging economies has been growing at about 5% per annum between 2000 - 2010, contributing to the rising price of graphite today
• China produces over 70% of the world's graphite or about 800,000 tons per year
  • Mainly low-carbon, low-value powder or small flake
  • Declining production/exports and increasing costs
  • Emphasis on value-added processing
  • Export taxes, VAT, and export licenses imposed

​

Graphite & Green Energy Technology
Pebble Bed Nuclear Reactor

• No meltdown by design
• Lower capital and operating costs
• More efficient with the use of heat and fuel
• A 1GW Pebble Bed Reactor needs 3,000 tonnes of graphite to start up and up to 1,000 tonnes to operate annually

Lithium-Ion Batteries

• Smaller, lighter and more powerful than traditional batteries
• Li-Ion battery demand for graphite in the next 5 to 7 years will consume more graphite than is produced in total today
• Used in all types of electric vehicles with 10 - 20x more graphite than lithium used
• Only flake graphite is conducive to making Li-Ion batteries

Fuel Cells

• 80kg of graphite is used in the average fuel cell vehicle
• Fortune 500 companies are targeting fuel cell markets for non-transportation uses

Graphite Prices

• Prices have almost tripled since 2005 due to:
  • Industrialization of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China)
  • Strong demand from traditional steel and automotive markets
  • Increasing demand as China's production and exports decline
• Graphite price appreciation is largely a function of the commodity super cycle and the industrialization of emerging economies as new, high growth applications are beginning to have an impact on demand and consumption
• Graphite prices are also a function of flake size and purity with large flake (+80 mesh), 94% carbon varieties commanding premium pricing.
• US$ per tonne (94 - 97% Carbon):
  • Large Flake - $2,500 - 3,000 (+80 mesh)
  • Medium Flake - $2,200 - 2,500 (+100-80 mesh)
  • Fine Flake - $2,000 - 2,400 (-100 mesh)
• Graphite must still be considered an overlooked and undervalued commodity in the context of the current super cycle

​

Notes & Quotes
"Proton Exchange Membrane technology requires large amounts of graphite, and is the most likely technology to be developed for use in light vehicles, buildings, and smaller applications."U.S. Department of Energy
"Large-scale fuel-cell applications are being developed that could consume as much graphite as all other uses combined"  - USGS, 2009
"Combined global sales of hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) will total 5.2 million units in 2020, or some 7.3% of the 70.9 million passenger vehicles forecast to be sold worldwide by that year" (estimate only) - J.D. Power Global Forecasting, 2010
"Global HEV, PHEV and BEV sales in 2010 are forecast to total 954,500 vehicles, or 2.2% of the 44.7 million vehicles projected to be sold through the end of 2010." - J.D. Power Global Forecasting, 2010
"As battery manufacturers grow with the burgeoning automotive lithium battery industry, these manufacturers will need a stable supply of raw materials. Increasingly, they are looking for graphite outside of China. Today, there is annual demand for roughly 1.1 million tonnes of natural graphite … but 960,000 tonnes of that capacity comes from China. This leaves customers largely dependent on China as a source of supply." - Byron Capital Markets, 2012