Re-post: Graphite resource, and their potential to support battery supply chains in Africa.......nice little read, talks about Graphite (raw materials), Africa....
please follow the link below....
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/531119/1/Graphite%20supply%20chains%20in%20Africa_Report.pdf
The continent of Africa has significant graphite resources, which may provide an opportunity for many African countries to contribute to meeting increased demand whilst also supporting economic growth. This report reviews known resources of graphite and engagement in the battery supply chain across key African countries. Many African countries (most notably Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania and Namibia) have significant graphite resources and some operating graphite mines.
Namibia (page 13)
The Aukam vein graphite deposit is located near Bethanien in southern Namibia and was worked on a small-scale between 1940 and 1974. Graphite occurs as massive lenses, pockets and veins and more rarely as minor disseminated patches hosted by the hydrothermally altered granite of the Namaqualand Metamorphic Complex (Moss, 2016). No resource estimate has been publicly published for this deposit. Future production will be from waste piles from historic graphite production in addition to new underground workings. Current production capacity is 650 tpa with construction underway of a plant with a capacity to produce 20 000 tpa of graphite. The company has two pre-production purchase agreements for its high purity, vein graphite (Gratomic, 2021).
Amorphous graphite deposits are typically formed by the thermal metamorphism of coal, petroleum or carbon-rich sediments. The main suppliers of amorphous graphite are Mexico, China and Russia (Robinson Jr et al., 2017) (Michaux, 2018). A large proportion of worldwide graphite production is derived from deposits of disseminated flake graphite found in high-grade metamorphic rocks (Robinson Jr et al., 2017). Flake graphite forms when carbon-rich sedimentary rocks undergo regional metamorphism. Metamorphism to at least amphibolite facies (medium pressure and medium to high temperatures) is necessary to transform carbon to graphite (Hoefs and Frey, 1976). Vein graphite occurs in the form of lumps and chips, filling well-defined fissures in highgrade metamorphic or igneous rocks or along the intrusive contact of pegmatite with marble or paragneiss (Robinson Jr et al., 2017). The largest producer of vein graphite is Sri Lanka (Robinson Jr et al., 2017).