Jean Depatie speaks to Alabama Graphite Corp.'s success
International Player Jean Depatie speaks to Alabama Graphite's success
Investor Intel
Published on Jun 18, 2014
June 18, 2014 -- Tracy Weslosky, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of InvestorIntel speaks to Jean Depatie, Chairman of Alabama Graphite (TSXV: ALP | OTCQB: ABGPF) about what attracted him to the Coosa Graphite Project and why it shows such strong promise. Jean recalls how, at first, he was approached by former colleagues who were now associated with Alabama Graphite to visit and offer his thoughts on the Coosa Graphite Project: "I had a look at the deposit, I came back and I was Chairman of the Board." Like Julius Caesar's famous "veni vidi vici", this very brief summary speaks volumes. Jean Depatie, in fact, knows his graphite very well and reflects the fact that the CEO, Ron Roda, has assembled an excellent group of directors to the Company, perhaps the most experienced technical team in the graphite space. In fact, Jean Depatie is no less than the former founder of Stratmin Graphite, now Timcal, the only mineral graphite producer left in the North America. It is quite a compliment to Alabama Graphite and its project to have been able to win over Jean, who clearly believes in the Coosa Project's potential to address international and US domestic graphite demand.
Jean liked the Coosa Project for several reasons: "I compared it to what we did at Stratmin Graphite and this one came out on top. Although, it was not in production, it smells good and that's why I joined the Company." Tracy points out that graphite has attracted 'promoters' as well as geologists, leading to an intense debate over what kind of graphite will generate the highest demand. Jean promptly responds that "the graphite market by itself is the large flake and for this they make grafoil -- and this is what you use for brake linings this is for a gasket in the car and this graphite sells for anywhere from $1,800 to $2,200-2,300 per ton; whereas the fine graphite is $450. So you want to have the course flake graphite; in Alabama....you can almost shovel [the rock] but the graphite flakes remain untouched and this is where you have a high percentage of large flake graphite and that's what you want." Moreover, the graphite is all at the surface and after conducting some airborne surveys, the project site showed some "beautiful anomalies", which will be the next focus of drilling and which Jean thinks will yield even better grades than the surface material, which is already of a high grade.
Alabama Graphite has 42,000 acres of property in central Alabama, located along a historic graphite belt. Alabama Graphite will be exploring five new targets over the next few months based on the anomalies that Jean mentioned at the Coosa Graphite Project.
Disclaimer: Alabama Graphite is an advertorial member of InvestorIntel.