Elcora and Graphene : on the cusp of revolution ? Hi guys, I mentioned the potentially high margin business of graphite feedstock from sri-lanka (super jumbo flakes at 97.5% up to 99%+ purity), and then the spherical graphite ambitions of Elcora (20.000tpa at 10.000$ per tonne), so what about graphene the revolutionary material ? the cornerstone of Elcora's strategy and the "raison d'tre" of the company in the first place ?
Elcora spent last year some 800.000$ on R&D into Graphene production (converting high quality sri-lankan graphite into True 1-2 layers of graphene) and development of potential applications with partners. Right now, Elcora is focusing on graphene as an additive, specifically on "Paints" and "coatings". Why coatings ? because it is a huge 150 Billion$ Market, and an "easy target" for graphene, a sort of "hanging fruit". Elcora's goal is not just to sell raw graphene, that is not where future money will be (raw graphene prices will decrease over time due to more supply, economies of scale, and new lower costs methos of production), but rather to develop value added graphene applications with commercial partners, that is where the big money will be made.
It is difficult to value the graphene business, it is something new, the market is still in its infancy. But one thing for sure : Elcora is on the cusp of grapehne revolution. If they succeed developing and commercializing viable applications of graphene into the market, Big money will be made, think Billions of $ rather than Millions, it is risky business and still in R&D stage with a strong worldwide competition where everyone is trying to find the holy grail of graphene commercial applications, but if anything, Elcora is well prepared, probably better than everyone, they produce already the highest quality of graphene in the world and they are working with top scientists, engineers and best minds on this field, they have IMO a good chance succeeding.
Personally, in the short term, I rather prefer to value Elcora as a graphite and spherical graphite company, where the possibility of becoming a 1billion$ + carbon company is real and looming in the not so far away horizon. However, I am not willing to discount the multi-billion$ graphene potential eventhough it is still in the R&D phase, because if anything, Elcora is well prepared and in the cusp of revolution.
Happy graphite and graphene investment to all,