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Wednesday, April 13, 2016 9:38:58 AM
Focus Graphite: Graphite Mine to Market
http://business.financialpost.com/news/mining/small-cap-news/focus-graphite-graphite-mine-to-market
Focus Graphite: Graphite Mine to Market
In the graphite space finding a graphite deposit is not the hard part. The hard part is finding the right sort of graphite, understanding how to make it ready for sale and recognizing that graphite is the precursor of the miracle material, graphene.
Focus Graphite (V.FMS) has known for several years it has a significant graphite deposit at its 100%-owned Lac Knife Graphite Project in the Province of Quebec. This is a high grade, natural flake graphite deposit and is widely acknowledged as a world class graphite mine prospect.
However, for Gary Economo, CEO of Focus, the Lac Knife deposit is the beginning of a much larger story. On the one side there is the promise of the booming Li-ion battery world. Here, pure spherical graphite is in increasing demand as the Tesla battery gigafactory nears completion and other huge Li-ion battery facilities come online. (People often forget that there is six times more graphite in a Li-ion battery than there is lithium.) On the other side there is a huge opportunity in the graphene space as more and more applications are commercialized for this extraordinary material.
For Economo, keeping the publically traded Focus Graphite aimed squarely at securing the offtake agreements required to make the Lac Knife deposit into viable graphite mine is a priority. So is leveraging the technology embedded in the Focus investee private company Grafoid Inc.
On March 23 Focus announced a Memorandum of Understanding had been reached between Grafoid and Xiamen Tungsten, a Chinese company with revenues of 1.55 billion a year derived from its position as one of China’s leading tungsten and other non-ferrous metals firms. Xiamen also has substantial interests in the rare earths space as well as significant exposure to the supply of battery materials. Per the MOU, Xiamen will acquire up to a 20% equity position in Grafoid and, as part of that transaction, will purchase up to 7,000,000 Grafoid common shares currently held by Focus Graphite.
In the press release announcing the MOU Economo stated:
“In addition to providing Grafoid with a strategic partner, Grafoid’s MOU with Xiamen, has benefits for Focus Graphite. When finalized, it will provide additional funding to allow us to advance our overall mine and transformation plant financing, and potentially open the China market to Focus Graphite for additional offtake partners and the sale of value added graphite products.”
“Specifically, this injection of funding could enable Focus Graphite to advance our Lac Knife detailed engineering and finalize the environmental permitting process. And, it enables us to move to the next stage in assembling our mine CAPEX financing.”
In our interview Economo explained the background to the proposed transaction. “The Chinese government is moving towards making the commercialization of graphene a national priority. At the same time the government wants China to get out of graphite and into graphene.”
“Grafoid and Focus have been approached by over a dozen Chinese companies. They like the Grafoid model of “mine to market”. We’re not just making graphene, we’re making end user products.” said Economo. “For Xiamen an investment in Grafoid makes sense. The world market for tungsten is getting softer as incandescent light bulbs are being replaced with LEDs. They see graphene as the way to go.”
“We hope to close this deal in the next couple of months.” explained Economo. “It has two main parts: the financing element which will let Focus move forward and the commercialization of graphene applications in China and worldwide.”
“We see three main areas for graphene and battery graphite commercialization: energy, coatings, and polymers. One the energy side we are looking at supplying battery grade natural graphite and we are looking at supercapacitors.”
“Coatings involve using graphene’s amazing properties in specific applications. For example, the electrical properties of graphene make it ideal for use in high voltage electrical transmission lines. It has significant promise in solar cells where we are seeing graphene enabled solar panels operating at 2.5 time the efficiency of normal panels.”
“Graphene’s conductive and thermal properties are widely known. What is less talked about is its hydrophobic nature. Graphene repels water. Which makes it ideal as a window coating. A transparent graphene film on a skyscraper window would effectively eliminate the expensive and dangerous need to clean that window. Or it can be used in aquariums where it will work as an antibacterial layer. Or on boats and ships to prevent fouling.” said Economo.
“Mixing graphene with polymers is another huge application.” said Economo. “You can use graphene polymer composites and make materials 100 to 300 percent stronger.”
“And now we are making a sponge with a sort of graphene foam. We can weave that material and the sponge will absorb oil but repel water. Ideal for oil spills or land reclamation.”
“The fact is graphene has already revolutionized the world. In the last five years there have been hundreds of applications brought to market and thousands of patents filed. But it takes years for a new technology to find wide market acceptance. Look at the cell phone. It took thirty years for everyone to have one in their pocket.”
While Economo loves to talk about the blue skies of graphene development, as CEO of Focus he keeps his feet firmly on the ground with both the Lac Knife graphite project and a rare earths opportunity at Kwyjibo, Quebec. Focus just completed the first tranche of private placement had raised over 1.5 million in flow through funds.
“We’ll be using those funds to advance the Kwyjibo rare earths project as well as some other graphite projects and Lac Knife. Kwyjibo is a world class project and having the expertise of Xiamen Tungsten – which is extensively involved in rare earths in China – will move the project forward.”
“Getting this financing was not hard. We’ve proven that our manufacturing process is first class. We’ve shown that our battery grade graphite is first class. We have three off take agreements – the only Canadian junior graphite company with any off take agreements.” said Economo. “And in the next five years the graphite production from Lac Knife may well be spoken for.”
At time of writing Focus Graphite was trading at $0.22 with 143 million shares outstanding and a market cap of $31.4 million.
http://business.financialpost.com/news/mining/small-cap-news/focus-graphite-graphite-mine-to-market
Focus Graphite: Graphite Mine to Market
In the graphite space finding a graphite deposit is not the hard part. The hard part is finding the right sort of graphite, understanding how to make it ready for sale and recognizing that graphite is the precursor of the miracle material, graphene.
Focus Graphite (V.FMS) has known for several years it has a significant graphite deposit at its 100%-owned Lac Knife Graphite Project in the Province of Quebec. This is a high grade, natural flake graphite deposit and is widely acknowledged as a world class graphite mine prospect.
However, for Gary Economo, CEO of Focus, the Lac Knife deposit is the beginning of a much larger story. On the one side there is the promise of the booming Li-ion battery world. Here, pure spherical graphite is in increasing demand as the Tesla battery gigafactory nears completion and other huge Li-ion battery facilities come online. (People often forget that there is six times more graphite in a Li-ion battery than there is lithium.) On the other side there is a huge opportunity in the graphene space as more and more applications are commercialized for this extraordinary material.
For Economo, keeping the publically traded Focus Graphite aimed squarely at securing the offtake agreements required to make the Lac Knife deposit into viable graphite mine is a priority. So is leveraging the technology embedded in the Focus investee private company Grafoid Inc.
On March 23 Focus announced a Memorandum of Understanding had been reached between Grafoid and Xiamen Tungsten, a Chinese company with revenues of 1.55 billion a year derived from its position as one of China’s leading tungsten and other non-ferrous metals firms. Xiamen also has substantial interests in the rare earths space as well as significant exposure to the supply of battery materials. Per the MOU, Xiamen will acquire up to a 20% equity position in Grafoid and, as part of that transaction, will purchase up to 7,000,000 Grafoid common shares currently held by Focus Graphite.
In the press release announcing the MOU Economo stated:
“In addition to providing Grafoid with a strategic partner, Grafoid’s MOU with Xiamen, has benefits for Focus Graphite. When finalized, it will provide additional funding to allow us to advance our overall mine and transformation plant financing, and potentially open the China market to Focus Graphite for additional offtake partners and the sale of value added graphite products.”
“Specifically, this injection of funding could enable Focus Graphite to advance our Lac Knife detailed engineering and finalize the environmental permitting process. And, it enables us to move to the next stage in assembling our mine CAPEX financing.”
In our interview Economo explained the background to the proposed transaction. “The Chinese government is moving towards making the commercialization of graphene a national priority. At the same time the government wants China to get out of graphite and into graphene.”
“Grafoid and Focus have been approached by over a dozen Chinese companies. They like the Grafoid model of “mine to market”. We’re not just making graphene, we’re making end user products.” said Economo. “For Xiamen an investment in Grafoid makes sense. The world market for tungsten is getting softer as incandescent light bulbs are being replaced with LEDs. They see graphene as the way to go.”
“We hope to close this deal in the next couple of months.” explained Economo. “It has two main parts: the financing element which will let Focus move forward and the commercialization of graphene applications in China and worldwide.”
“We see three main areas for graphene and battery graphite commercialization: energy, coatings, and polymers. One the energy side we are looking at supplying battery grade natural graphite and we are looking at supercapacitors.”
“Coatings involve using graphene’s amazing properties in specific applications. For example, the electrical properties of graphene make it ideal for use in high voltage electrical transmission lines. It has significant promise in solar cells where we are seeing graphene enabled solar panels operating at 2.5 time the efficiency of normal panels.”
“Graphene’s conductive and thermal properties are widely known. What is less talked about is its hydrophobic nature. Graphene repels water. Which makes it ideal as a window coating. A transparent graphene film on a skyscraper window would effectively eliminate the expensive and dangerous need to clean that window. Or it can be used in aquariums where it will work as an antibacterial layer. Or on boats and ships to prevent fouling.” said Economo.
“Mixing graphene with polymers is another huge application.” said Economo. “You can use graphene polymer composites and make materials 100 to 300 percent stronger.”
“And now we are making a sponge with a sort of graphene foam. We can weave that material and the sponge will absorb oil but repel water. Ideal for oil spills or land reclamation.”
“The fact is graphene has already revolutionized the world. In the last five years there have been hundreds of applications brought to market and thousands of patents filed. But it takes years for a new technology to find wide market acceptance. Look at the cell phone. It took thirty years for everyone to have one in their pocket.”
While Economo loves to talk about the blue skies of graphene development, as CEO of Focus he keeps his feet firmly on the ground with both the Lac Knife graphite project and a rare earths opportunity at Kwyjibo, Quebec. Focus just completed the first tranche of private placement had raised over 1.5 million in flow through funds.
“We’ll be using those funds to advance the Kwyjibo rare earths project as well as some other graphite projects and Lac Knife. Kwyjibo is a world class project and having the expertise of Xiamen Tungsten – which is extensively involved in rare earths in China – will move the project forward.”
“Getting this financing was not hard. We’ve proven that our manufacturing process is first class. We’ve shown that our battery grade graphite is first class. We have three off take agreements – the only Canadian junior graphite company with any off take agreements.” said Economo. “And in the next five years the graphite production from Lac Knife may well be spoken for.”
At time of writing Focus Graphite was trading at $0.22 with 143 million shares outstanding and a market cap of $31.4 million.
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