Found a very old post on HC at the time OAR floated on the ASX...

Found a very old post on HC at the time OAR floated on the ASX in Oct 14 regarding graphene prospects in the Eyre Peninsula:

”Oakdale Resources CEO John Lynch
Successful Queensland miner John Lynch is taking eight tenements covering 2008 square kilometres in the Eyre Peninsula to market through graphite prospector Oakdale Resources (ASX: OAR).

With capital raised by Patersons Securities Limited, Oakdale Resources aims to identify and develop deposits of large flake graphite, which is increasingly in demand for high-performance batteries

Oakdale Resources has already attracted Australian technology entrepreneur Simon Hackett as its lead investor. Mr. Hackett is purchasing one quarter ($1.5m) of Oakdale’s $6 million initial public offering.

Graphite, a mineral composed entirely of carbon atoms, is used for a range of products including steel, brake linings, foundry facings, lubricants and advanced batteries.

John Lynch launched his mining career in the 1980s when he co-founded and developed the Mt Leyshon gold mine with Pan Australian Mining, which was valued at more than $400 million at its peak. After selling out of Pan Australian Mining, Mr. Lynch discovered and evaluated the Weda Bay nickel/cobalt deposit in Indonesia. The French giant Eramet bought Weda Bay for CAD$270 million in 2005.
While Mr. Lynch has invested in agriculture in 2470 square kilometre cattle property in North Queensland and various property developments throughout Queensland since 2005, he maintained a private portfolio of mining assets, from which came the graphite tenements on Eyre Peninsula.

Initial metallurgical testing of the soil-covered primary fresh graphitic material found a large percentage of the recoverable graphite to be amorphous graphite that requires extensive crushing to liberate the graphite. However Mr. Lynch subsequently followed the graphitic material to near surface and found a layer of heavily weathered oxidised material that separated much more easily and produced a good proportion of large flake graphite.

Mr. Lynch said he was excited by the potential of this large flake graphite project. “I’m really encouraged by the extent to which the host rock has broken down significantly into clays,” he said.

The benefit of easy extraction is supported by world-renowned graphite expert Dr Ian Flint, who emphasises the importance of preserving the crystal morphology. “The more crushing, grinding and processing you have to do affects [flake yield]…..and there’s very little graphite that is produced that actually qualifies for battery grade graphite,” he said.
Dr. Flint went on to say that while he supported Tesla’s planned gigafactory to manufacture lithium ion batteries in the US, “they’re going to have trouble finding the graphite for it.”

Oakdale Resources has found support from technology entrepreneur Simon Hackett – Tesla’s best known customer in Australia. Simon is an enthusiastic advocate of the potential for graphite to support advanced technologies including the production of highend batteries now and the potential for development of products based on the ‘super material’ graphene in the future.

In 2012, Mr. Hackett sold his successful broadband company Internode to ASX-listed iiNet, subsequently joining the iiNet board for 18 months, before he accepted an invitation to become a director of NBNCo, the government-owned company rolling out the National Broadband network.

Mr. Hackett, who bought Australia’s first Tesla electric supercar in 2009, believes adoption of electric vehicles, especially in Asia, will surprise market followers, creating strong demand for graphite in their high-end batteries.
“We consider graphite is a disruptive example of mining that has genuine 'green' aspects because graphite enables so much development of sustainable technology,” he said.

“Oakdale Resources attracted my investment because it appears to have located high quality and easily extracted graphite in an accessible location, just as market demand is about to pick up.”