RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: 2000-4000 ton - Spherical Grap forwardflash
Your post says: "Here is the article I got the info for my controversial post.
https://www.northerngraphite.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/MackieNov2012.pdf
Graphite used in a lithium battery anode may be in jeopordy, but graphite for nuclear and graphene looks very promising. It just looks to me that to much money is betting on graphite use in lithium batteries, when clearly new tech is threatening part if not all of its use in them."
Presumably, it's the controversial post that implies NGC used $10k/tonne for spherical graphite. This price was mentioned in MacKie's report (link above), not NGC report such as their BFS report which does not include the future potential for spherical graphite which is quite feasible since tests have shown that very high purity can be achieved using the concentrates from Bissett Creek facility. As I understand it, economic feasibility study for upgrading to spherical graphite is being carried out by NGC with some initial estimate of about $10M per module which can handle part of the output from the mill...and he upgrading facility can be scaled up as required by the demand. This product is expected to be priced in the range $6-8k/tonnes.
MacKie report, in the 2nd bullet of an excerpt below, was quoting FMS value of $10k (which Mackie found interesting) and indicated that there may be potential upside to their forecast using $7k for NGC spherical graphite. Also, check out the 3rd bullet in the excerpt for some additional positive comment from Mackie.
As far as your comments about "graphite used in lithium battery may be in jeopardy...etc". is concerned I presume this is your own personal opinion based on your knowledge in this field, and it has nothing to do with the above Mackie report. If you drew this conclusion based on Mackie report then a quote from that report would be useful for verification purposes by others.
Use of high purity graphite in batteries is accelerating at fast pace...and it's happing now. There is some potential use of graphite in nuclear reactors (pebble bed), but only China is heading in this direction and the potential demand for this would be in the future, say in 10 years. Graphene is exotic, but it will be a long time before we could talk bulk quantity @ high price.
Another thing, I don't see any "clear threat of the so-called new tech", since graphene for example would still require high purity graphite as "raw material" (actually, high purity graphite is a valuable commodity).
goldhunter
