RE:Example of pending anticipation in Graphite space Purveyer wrote.
Nobody really talks about graphite ..yet .. which is surprising
everyone talks about Lithium and Cobalt.
Your right, Simon Moore of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, hardly ever mention graphite. I also believe we will be reading a lot more about graphite supply and demand in the near future.
Here are a few tidbits of info. on graphite taken from a couple of different credible sources.
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence estimates in 2021, based on Tesla manufacturing 150,000 Model 3 units, Benchmark estimates that the company will consume 10,800 tonnes of spherical graphite for its anodes and 7,200 tonnes of lithium hydroxide as a cathode raw material.
My note. (this is a little outdated as Tesla already has orders for at least 500,000 of the Model 3.)
Graphite promoters will claim there is twice as much graphite in a battery than lithium. If you go by weight which is the best measurement, it might be more like 1.6 times
A large EV battery requires about 25kg (55 lb) of graphite for the Li-ion anode, which is around twice the 15 to 28 pounds of lithium I calculated. At 28 pounds lithium, it is close at 1.9 times more graphite.
Spherical graphite has to be 99.9% pure carbon and go through a refining process to make and as a result, on average over half the flake graphite mined is lost in the concentration process. So to make ton of spherical graphite you need 2 tons or more of natural graphite produced. So in essence there is about 3 to 4 times as much graphite required for a battery than lithium.