RE:Lithium prices skyrocketingHi Vessob, IMO we wont see any similar movement anytime soon for natural flake run of mine graphite, at least not until the iron industry recovers from its over-supply, under-demand issues. We may see though a similar movement for spherical battery grade graphite (SPG), IF AND ONLY IF Tesla-Panasonic and other major lithium battery anode graphite producers switch to natural spherical graphite instead of the more expensive but higher quality consistency synthetic graphite.
According to simon moore's industrial minerals magazine, 60% of the lithiom battery anode graphite market is now SPG, and only 40% is still synthetic (for a global market which is still relatively small at 100.000tons per year but growing rapidly). SPG is winning market share slowly but steadily. The main issue for south korean and japanese anode manufacturers who dont use natural is the quality conistency problems of SPG coming from China. Many small natural graphite miners feed the plants with diffferent quality graphite and thats a big issue for final product quality consistency.
For example Tesla-Panasonic produce the best quality lithium batteris in the market and the only way to achieve that is by buying the best quality mineral resources.
IMO, there is ONLY ONE WAY for SPG producers to convince Tesla-Panasonic and others to switch to natural SPG, and that is to produce high quality consistency SPG.
That is why if ALP or Syrah are serious in succeeding in this field, they need to build a large scale pilot plant for SPG. Prove the quality consistency and send samples to potential customers (like Tesla). This is particularly important for ALP to prove the viability of their process if they want to achieve a great Feasibility Study and to sign a contract with Tesla. Benchmark Laboratory scale testing wont cut it IMO.
want only the best
vessob wrote: Dr. Fouad recently tweeted that lithium prices are skyrocketing ... Thx Dr ... Will we see the same sort of movement in graphite?