South Australia’s big graphite push

South Australia’s big graphite push
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Valance Industries (ASX:VXL): This week the company reported its treatment plant at Uley was producing 94% grade concentrate. Its main buyers are companies in the traditional graphite space, such as makers of lubricants, drilling fluids, expandable graphites and fire retardants. However, the plant will be working at 50% capacity until April next year while improvements are made to lift grade, and 60% of the staff has been laid off in the meantime.

No doubt this will be seen as a disappointing development when so much hope and expectation has been invested in the graphite story, especially as the company’s Uley mine has only just been revived after being put out of business by Chinese dumping in the 1990s. Valence shares lost 10.2% on the news


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