I just watched the TLG presentation for ********* webinar on the...

I just watched the TLG presentation for ********* webinar on the 28th of May on youtube.

Some interesting info came out

1/ Ford just announced with their solid state battery partners they aren't going to use lithium metal as their anode but graphite/silcon. Lithium as a metal is difficult to work with. That will push out graphite dominate anodes well past the next 20 yrs

2/ Graphite suitability testing for the auto industry is way stricter than anything else. Even though they have produced graphite in a lab and had it tested, they need to produce graphite from a fully operational pilot plant and have that fully tested as well. Basically back to square 1.

3/ They showed a chart from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence showing ~3.2mt of coated graphite anode required by 2025 and ~4.55mt by 2030 for battery's. 700kt was produced in 2020. I'm assuming this includes synthetic which equates approximately to the amount of offcut graphite produced to make the coated graphite. Therefore you'll need ~3mt of natural graphite in 2025 to produce 1.9-2mt of natural coated graphite. Roskill reported the global production of natural graphite in 2020 by 850kt.

4/ You can't recycle graphite in a battery and reuse in another battery. You can only use it for other industrial applications.

5/ TLG are still years away from producing their first graphite and up to 4-5 years selling AAM or anodes themselves. However, TLG are not our competitors. SYR and TLG are complimentary to the anode supply chain.

I'm beginning to doubt if there is enough commercially viable natural graphite available to meet the 2030 targets let alone 2040 which will double again.

I need some help. By 2025, the off-cut of natural graphite produced to make AAM will equate to the total natural graphite required for industrial purposes.

1/ what purity is the off-cut after it is milled? 99%/99.94%?
2/ different flake sizes are preferred for different industrial applications. Can all or part of the off-cut be used instead?
3/ if so what purity does it need to be?
4/ would it be preferred over large size flake? ie more economically viable/more efficient to use if purchased at the same price

Balama can produce 350kt of 94% graphite for 50 years. If they replicate the current plant, can they mine enough to produce 700kt/pa or even more?