Ceylon Graphite: A Graphite Company to Watch 
There is a lot of market buzz about lithium with Chinese companies buying lithium juniors at big markups. The lithium market is being driven by the fast growing demand for Lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries, primarily for electric vehicles.
Here is a little secret about Li-ion batteries, virtually all of them use graphite as the anode.
There is also a lot of market buzz about uranium. Sprott has started a uranium fund, the Japanese are restarting their nuclear fleet, many other countries are looking at nukes to meet their CO2 reduction targets.
Here is a little secret about nuclear reactors, 90% of them use nuclear grade graphite as a moderator, reflector and for other components.
At the moment the Li-ion battery industry and the nuclear reactor business use almost exclusively “synthetic” graphite. Synthetic graphite is environmentally awful stuff. It is made by taking petroleum coke (don’t ask) and baking it for a week or two at a relatively high temperature. Most of the world’s synthetic graphite comes from China and the process for making it is so nasty and energy intensive that even the Chinese are shutting down synthetic graphite plants. Synthetic graphite’s main attraction is that it is “high purity”, 99.99% pure carbon. Purity is important in battery applications and mission critical in the nuclear industry.
So, synthetic graphite production is waning but the demand for high purity graphite is growing exponentially as EVs and nukes take center stage in a bright, green, world. Where will that graphite come from. Two answers, three companies: vein graphite and ultra pure flake graphite.
Ceylon Graphite is worth a look for investors who want exposure to these high purity graphites. It is trading well off its previous highs, has a minimal CAPEX -- a good deal of which has already been spent. Lastly, it's flagship asset is currently in production. Ceylon Graphite (CYL.V) (OTCQB:CYLYF) Sri Lanka has long been famous for its high purity, vein, graphite. Unlike Namibia, where the veins are close to surface, in Sri Lanka the veins go down into the Earth. Ceylon Graphite holds a large concession in Sri Lanka and has one, small, operating graphite mine.
The company has recently brought on mining engineer, Don Baxter, as CEO. Right now, the company’s mining effort is only a couple of steps above artisanal. Baxter has visited Sri Lanka and has plans to mechanize and improve production at the first mine, K1. The graphite itself is high purity and in veins which can be mined relatively easily.
K1 is just the start of the Ceylon Graphite effort. There are a number of past producing mines in its concession as well as many areas which appear highly prospective for graphite. K1 will serve as a proto-type for a “modular” approach to bringing more mines online.
Baxter is well aware of the advantages of controlling the purification processes for the mined graphite and the desirability of having in house spheronization capacity. “You can sell the slightly purified graphite for $1500 a ton, or you can spheronize it and get $15,000 a ton.” The company was able to announce that it had made a “coin battery” (a reference standard for graphite) using its vein graphite. This is the first time vein graphite has been used for a coin battery and the Ceylon Graphite significantly outperformed synthetic graphite.
CYL traded as high as $0.51 early in 2021 but has fallen back to a $0.15-0.20 range. The market is taking some time to factor in the effect of having a serious mining engineer at the helm. (Ceylon Graphite: Sri Lanka Vein Graphite to Coin Battery)