VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Dec. 7, 2016) -Graphite One Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:GPH)(OTCQX:GPHOF) ("Graphite One", "GPH" or the "Company") is pleased to provide this summary of the Company's 2016 milestones in the development of its Graphite Creek Project near Nome, Alaska.
- Raised over $2.8 million in new financing
- 2016 Product Development Program's results confirmed high performance, repeatability and stability of the Company's spherical graphite - all indicators of high-quality graphite for lithium-ion ("Li-ion") batteries
- Work continues to produce exploratory grade samples of coated, spherical graphite ("C-SPG") for testing by potential end-users
- Nearing completion of its inaugural Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") for release in January 2017
2016 Milestones
During 2016, Graphite One completed four rounds of financing. Initially targeted for funds totaling a cumulative $2.4 million, two of the four financings were oversubscribed, raising a total of more than $2.8 million.
With proceeds from its financings, GPH conducted a comprehensive Product Development Program (the "Program") under the management of TRU Group with the following results:
- The test work produced purified graphite exceeding the threshold purity requirement of 99.95% Cg and averaged 99.98% Cg.
- The Program produced premium-grade spherical graphite ("SPG") from the purified graphite.
- The best spheronization result - High Yield SPG - achieved almost 75% conversion of GPH STAX graphite to SPG in the size range suited for electric vehicle applications compared to typical industry yields of 30 to 40%.
- Manufacture of the High Yield SPG product followed a simpler processing protocol and required less energy input than conventional processing compared to SPG from Chinese natural flake graphite in that there was no prior size reduction (milling) of the GPH purified graphite (purified graphite extracted from select surface samples from the Company's Graphite Creek Property).
- The entire size distribution of the GPH purified graphite was the feed to the spheronizing mill.
- The GPH feed was processed in half the residence time and at two thirds of the energy input in the spheronizing mill to achieve product size and yield.
- Working with its uncoated SPG, the Program achieved first discharge capacity approaching natural graphite's Theoretical Maximum Capacity of 372 Ah/kg in three tests and equaling it in one.
To view the associated graph, visit the following link: https://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1079215-F1.png
- Working with coated spherical graphite coin cells, the Program achieved reversible discharge capacity as high as 370.1 Ah/kg - or 0.5% below the Theoretical Maximum Capacity.
"2016 marked a major step forward in our development of our Graphite Creek Project," said Anthony Huston, CEO of Graphite One. "Our Program indicated the unique characteristics of our STAX natural flake graphite, which more than met our expectations for performance on the key metrics for spherical graphite." STAX graphite is the acronym used to describe Spheroidal, Thin, Aggregate and eXpanded naturally-occurring morphologies present in the graphite sourced from the Graphite Creek deposit. "Our goal for Graphite One is to become a reliable producer of high-quality graphite for the rapidly evolving energy and high-tech sectors," Huston continued.
To view Figure 1: Comparative Reversible Discharge Capabilities, visit the following link: https://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1079215-F2.png
The Company continues to produce samples of its SPG for assessment by potential end-users.
The Company is also nearing completion of its preliminary test work on the mineral processing circuit for producing high grade graphite concentrate from the Company's Graphite Creek graphite mineralization. The Graphite Creek Property is expected to provide mineralized feed to the Company's Mineral Processing Plant which is to extract graphite concentrate.
PEA Update
Graphite One reports that it is now anticipated that the Preliminary Economic Assessment (the "PEA") for the Graphite Creek Project is now targeted for completion by the end of January 2017. Work continues toward finalizing the PEA and most components of the PEA are complete, with some delays experienced due to the time required to complete its review and approve the document.
While flake graphite is a key material in a range of applications in high-tech, clean tech, energy storage and national security applications, there is presently no U.S. production of flake graphite.
About Graphite One