$Grat Tesla Batteries 💵🔋Graphite ☑️☑️
Gratomic Aims to Become a Cleaner Source of Graphite for North American Consumers
by Gratomic | Sep 3, 2020 | News
Thursday, September 3, 2020
TORONTO, ON /September 3, 2020 / Gratomic Inc. (“GRAT” or the “Company”) (TSXV:GRAT) (OTC: CBULF) (FRANKFURT:CB81) (WKN:A143MR) aims to become a cleaner graphite source for North American consumers and is pleased to announce the Company’s objective to process graphite in a clean and environmentally responsible manner.
As the battery manufacturing industry becomes increasingly competitive, many electric vehicle battery manufacturers are currently forced towards choosing lesser environmentally friendly graphite options. In many cases, the mining and processing methods used can be unsafe and some have the potential to cause major pollution in neighbouring cities and towns. Alternatively, many electric vehicle battery manufacturers are turning to synthetic graphite sources, often created in labs from petroleum and biogas by-products, among other carbon sources. These methods can also potentially produce undesirable emissions during the processing phase.
Arno Brand: President and CEO commented:
As the world is becoming more drawn towards Cleaner metals, Gratomic is taking on a leadership position by aiming to produce higher quality Cg with a lower carbon footprint. We have a clear objective as a company, to maximize engineering efforts and to minimize environmental impact. We intend to create a new commodity class that includes, as part of the product specifications, the environmental footprint imposed by producing that tonne of material in an effort to provide buyers with full disclosure on the product’s impact.
In its design efforts, the Gratomic team has taken every possible step to minimize environmental impact and lower the carbon footprint of Gratomic graphite. The Company has designed new and innovative graphite processing procedures that will produce higher quality graphite while minimizing environmental impacts and lowering the carbon footprint created during the processing phase. Calculations conducted internally by our team of industry experts reveals that the production of one tonne of graphite at a percentage of approximately 98% Cg will create a very low carbon footprint of 0.8Kg of carbon emissions, or 16,000 kg per annum.
We believe accomplishing this objective is a positive environmental step forward and a true example of Gratomic’s vision, innovation, and leadership in the graphite mining industry. Our graphite processing design also encompasses a unique water recycling and filtration system that is expected to recover up to 95% of the water used during the processing phase.
The graphite intended for processing at the Company’s Aukam Graphite Project is in a naturally weathered state and contains little deleterious elements mitigating any lasting negative environmental impacts. This information has been verified through numerous analytical results from testing programs. Pilot testing has validated that the majority of the reject material contained minor amounts of clay silica and iron with smaller traces of calcium. The rejects material when analysed did not contain any sulfur or heavy metals which generally pose the greatest environmental threat.
The Company utilizes all resources so efficiently and effectively that waste is extremely limited. Gratomic is highly focused on recycling and has found a use for the residual material that resides in its tailing ponds. This slurry by-product to be extracted from the tailing ponds is intended to be recycled into bricks. It would be combined with concrete and compressed, and the residual graphite contained in the slurry, when incorporated into the bricks, should result in stronger, longer lasting product, particularly in hot climates.
Gratomic wishes to emphasize that no Preliminary Economic Analysis (“PEA”), Preliminary Feasibility Study or Feasibility Study has been completed to support any level of production. In fact, no mineral resources, let alone mineral reserves demonstrating economic viability and technical feasibility, have been delineated on the Aukam Property.
The Company recently appointed Dr. Ian Flint to complete a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on the Aukam Processing plant. The study, its recommendations, and their subsequent implementation, will provide conclusions and recommendation at a PEA level of comfort relating to the scale up of the existing processing plant to a commercial scale processing facility that will provide the desired concentrate grades and production rates. A preliminary economic assessment is preliminary in nature, it includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized.
Gratomic wishes to emphasize that the supply of graphite pursuant to any off-take or supply agreement referred to in this Press Release is conditional on Gratomic being able to bring the Aukam project into a production phase, and for any graphite being produced to meet certain technical and mineralization requirements. Gratomic continues to move its business towards production and as part of its business plan, expects to obtain a National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects technical report to help it ascertain the economics of the Aukam project.
The anode in Li ion batteries (LiBs") is made out of graphite. A graphite anode is one of the things that make it a LiB and there are no substitutes. LiBs are smaller, lighter and more powerful than traditional batteries and have a flat voltage profile meaning they provide almost full power until discharged. They also have no memory effect and a very low rate of discharge when not in use. Almost all portable consumer devices such as laptops, cell phones, MP3 players and cameras use Li ion batteries and they are now rapidly moving into power tools and bigger devices. This has lead to 20% annual growth in the LiB market.
This growth rate is expected to continue as hybrid electric vehicles (“HEV”), plug in electric vehicles (“PEV”) and all electric vehicles (“EV”), and grid storage applications, are huge markets that are all in their infancy. This has significant implications for the LiB and graphite markets. The batteries are large and the potential demand for graphite very significant. By weight, graphite is the second largest component in LiBs and they contain 10-15 times more graphite than lithium. Because of losses in the manufacturing process, it actually takes over 30 times as much graphite to make the batteries.
There is up to 10 kgs of graphite in the average HEV and up to 70 kgs in an EV. There is far more in a Tesla Model S. Every million EVs, which is about 1% of the new car market, require in the order of 75,000 tonnes of natural graphite to make the batteries which represents a potential ten per cent increase in flake graphite demand. Because of the small size of the flake graphite market, even modest, conservative EV adoption rates will have a big effect on demand. LiB manufacturing capacity currently under construction would require flake graphite production to more than double by 2025.
The anode material used in LiBs, called spherical graphite ("SPG"), is manufactured from either flake graphite concentrates produced by graphite mines or from synthetic graphite. Only flake graphite which can be economically rounded and upgraded to 99.95% purity can be used. The manufacturing process includes micronization, rounding, purification and heat treatment. The process is expensive and wastes up to 70% of the flake graphite feed. As a result, uncoated spherical graphite currently sells for up to USD3,000/tonne or over three times the price of large flake graphite. Coated spherical graphite sells for USD$4,000 to $12,000 per tonne depending on quality and end market.
Almost all Li ion battery manufacturing currently takes place in Asia because of the ready availability of graphite, weak environmental standards and low costs. Secure, cost competitive and environmentally sustainable source of graphite are needed in the west.