Zen's graphiteis not an all or nothing proposition. Graphite is a product that can be purified, upgraded, coated, treated with special processes, all in the name of obtaining a specific set of qualities for a certain industry. The flake deposits spend huge money and sacrifice up to 70% of their feed to obtain high purity aka 99%+. They also put their graphite through something called jet milling to "round" the flakes to pursue isotropy. Jet milling, under SEM has shown to damage edges and produces an end product that is of a lesser quality. I have posted links to the research paper that demonstrated this fact in previous posts.
So for those waiting to get the proof that our graphite will or will not be of enough quality for the higher end applications, I would submit that our graphite will be the best graphite in the world for those applications based on ultra-high purity, isotropy, homogeneity (ZEN has compared graphite from the east and west pipes at the molecular level and determined that there was no difference hence the deposit is homogenous-Sri Lanka is not homogenous if some wondered about this) and the fact that we have vein graphite which is at the top of the food chain when comparing graphite size, ie vein or lump is better than super jumbo which is better then large flake. We may not know what the CTE (coefficient of thermal expansion) is, but this is a quality of isotropy. If we have perfect isotropy, the CTE would be the same in all axis X, Y and Z as opposed to flake deposits where the CTE varies in different axis because they are inherently anisotropic and why the flakers chase "spherical graphite" at great costs. CTE is a very important quality in nuclear reactors and in lithium ion batteries. Ark furnaces have mixed results here. I have seen research that shows anisometropia being the sought after variety and why they tend to use needle coke as the foundation for synthetic graphite to ensure they get anisometropia but I have seen other research that says that they can use isotropic graphite. This market is a very proprietary market and getting clear answers here is not evident. At this point, it is safe for me to say that it is a possibility.
The Boron equivalent is something critical for the nuclear industry. I have not come across this requirement in any other applications so this is strictly important in this very lucrative market. I agree with CC that this market is in decline for multiple reasons but I submit that the pursuit of nuclear derived energy is still very much alive and if the right nuclear reactor model can be developed, demonstrated to be safe and yielding high electrical output, this market will turn around rapidly. I also agree with Hoov that the biggest failure and critical component of the nuclear reactor that has evaded multi million dollar research is a graphite of high enough quality. Solve the graphite issue and I believe we will see a turn around in this floundering industry. I believe ZEN's graphite has a very legitimate chance of solving this major problem. We may need some of the fancy processes mentioned above to deliver nuclear grade graphite but starting with ZEN's graphite may just solve the biggest problem of this industry. How many dollars per ton would ZEN's graphite be worth in this case??
I personally am not concerned about the size of the market or the applications where ZEN's graphite can be utilized. ZEN will have the best graphite on earth (CCB will be very close or equivalent in quality probably but no where near ZEN's tonnage) and I expect price battles for guaranteeing delivery of this world's best graphite.
Respectfully,
Glorieux