Sama's Lola graphite suitable for many applications
Sama's Lola graphite suitable for many applications
2017-04-27 09:07 ET - News Release
Dr. Marc-Antoine Audet reports
SAMA GRAPHITE (SRG) RECEIVES VERY FAVORABLE CHARACTERIZATION TEST RESULTS
Sama Graphite Inc. has provided the results of a ProGraphite GmbH technical investigation on the company's 100-per-cent-owned Lola graphite deposit in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa. Laboratory work and analysis conducted by PG on the Lola graphite concentrate returned excellent results indicating that graphite from the Lola deposit is suitable for a very wide range of graphite applications, including the important traditional markets like refractories, crucibles, friction products, carbon brushes and sealing. Additionally, the combination of very favourable ash composition, high crystallinity, high oxidation resistance and excellent purification behaviour makes the graphite very valuable for demanding new tech applications, including energy applications and particularly with regard to spherical graphite for lithium-ion batteries.
ProGraphite main observations:
- The high proportion of large flakes of the concentrate is remarkable. Only very few flake graphite deposits have such a high flake yield. This is a major advantage for the Lola deposit, as the large flakes trade at significantly higher prices.
- The concentrate was screened to get particle size distribution information with very favourable results: very coarse material, two-thirds of the graphite is large flake (plus 80 mesh) and one-third is "jumbo" flake material (plus 50 mesh).
- Compared with minus 100 mesh graphite of the same carbon grade, the market price for plus 50 mesh material is more than double, which makes the Lola deposit much more valuable.
- Main elemental impurities are silicon, aluminum and iron, which is typical for flake graphite. Impurities known to cause trouble in various applications, such like sulphur or heavy metals, are naturally on very low levels in the Lola graphite concentrate.
- Key advantages of Lola graphite are the favourable ash composition and the comparably low efforts required to attain high carbon grades.
- The graphite is of very high crystallinity, which means that the graphite crystals are almost perfect, making this graphite suitable for highly demanding applications like lithium-ion batteries or synthetic diamonds.
- Purification tests verified that the graphite could easily be upgraded with standard processes to levels above 99.5 per cent; with most elements, already under the limits for battery application. The purification performed was mild compared with the harsh purification usually applied for lithium-ion battery grade, thereby attesting again to the likelihood that the material will be very suitable for such an application.
- The volatiles are low, oxidation resistance is very high and the specific surface area is in the normal range.
- The graphite from the Lola deposit has a high bulk density (over 700 grams per litre), typical Chinese graphite has bulk densities of 450 to 550 grams per litre for plus 80 mesh.
ProGraphite performed the investigation on a concentrate sample produced by Activation Laboratory (Actlab) in Ontario. Actlab produced a first flash flotation concentrate from the typical surface graphite rich material. No attempt to further purify the concentrate was made at Actlab. This was intentional as the corporation wanted ProGraphite to investigate the most suitable purification processes to be applied to the flash concentrate in determining and targeting various markets and end uses.
SRG is continuing to work in close collaboration with PG and Actlab to refine metallurgical processing for developing the most optimal flowsheet.
About Sama Graphite Inc.
SRG is a Canadian-based company focused on developing the Lola graphite deposit, located in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa. SRG is committed to operate in a socially, environmentally and ethically responsible manner.