If you didn't get a chance to read the md&a here is page 17-22 Recent Activity. It's a great read as it itemizes the progress in the last 2 years. Regards. Mona
Recent Activity
Since 2016, the Company has made the following announcements:
• On January 27, 2016, the Company announced significant progress related to the laboratory scale production of graphene from high-purity Albany graphite concentrate by a team of scientists at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Graphene was discovered in 2004 at the University of Manchester, UK. Graphene is a single sheet of pure graphite that is one atom thick, flexible, transparent, stronger than diamonds or steel and is highly conductive. Experts believe that graphene will enable many innovative clean-tech applications, including low-cost solar cells, super computers and rapid charge batteries. So far, one obstacle to its widespread use is the high manufacturing cost for high-quality graphene. A lower-cost approach is to use high-purity natural graphite, like Albany graphite, as the starting point.
In 2015, Dr. Aicheng Chen, Professor of Chemistry and Canada Research Chair in Materials and Environmental Chemistry at Lakehead University (‘Lakehead’), was awarded a Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (‘NSERC’) Collaborative Research and Development (‘CRD’) grant. The goals of the NSERC CRD project are: (i) to characterize the physical and chemical properties of Zenyatta’s Albany graphite; (ii) to understand its electrochemical behaviors; (iii) to modify the Albany graphite for practical applications; and, (iv)to develop advanced carbon nanomaterials like graphene from the Albany graphite. Since the award of the grant, Dr. Chen and his research group have made significant advances in the characterization of Albany graphite and the development of new materials from it for practical applications. Dr. Chen and his team have tested various graphene exfoliation techniques on samples of Albany graphite. The research team at Lakehead has been intensively exploring new routes for the generation of high-quality graphene for comparative purposes and to facilitate mass production. Initial results indicate that high quality graphene oxides can be produced from Albany graphite at a laboratory scale. The graphene oxide produced can be converted to graphene via a simple reduction process. Preliminary graphene yields of approximately 98% from
Albany graphite are very encouraging from these tests.
• On March 29, 2016, the Company announced successful performance testing of high-purity Albany graphite in components of a Ballard fuel cell stack. This Phase 4 testing program was designed to show viability of Zenyatta’s Albany graphite compared to synthetic graphite in realistic fuel cell operating conditions. Zenyatta natural graphite material was prototyped, tested and compared for key mechanical and electrical properties against Ballard’s baseline synthetic graphite in a commercial product platform. Importantly, the properties of Zenyatta’s Albany graphite material were all within the specifications needed for high performance of Ballard products in a number of commercial fuel cell applications. The components made from Albany graphite were equivalent to the existing synthetic graphite made components. This is another significant step in the process of qualifying Zenyatta’s Albany graphite for existing fuel cell markets in transportation and stationary energy storage.
From an environmental and cost advantage, the Ballard report also concluded: 1 - Zenyatta graphite provides a clean carbon option for fuel cell components (i.e. plates and membrane electrode assembly).
2 - If Zenyatta’s hydrothermal graphite can also be low cost compared to existing synthetic graphite, it
will facilitate fuel cell cost reduction and market penetration.
Zenyatta started Phase 1 testing of Albany graphite for fuel cell components in early 2015 with an initial screening by the National Research Council of Canada and Ballard Power Systems. Test results released in March of 2015 showed the Albany graphite to be suitable for hydrogen fuel cell components. A Phase 2 testing program by Ballard was initiated immediately afterward and announced in August of 2015. This revealed that Albany graphite exhibits high thermal and corrosion resistance properties. High thermal stability and corrosion resistance is critical in the performance of certain fuel cell components. The results of a Phase 3 program were released by Zenyatta in December 2015. All functional tests completed at that time showed the properties of Zenyatta’s Albany graphite to be as good as the benchmark synthetic graphite presently used by Ballard in fuel cell technology. These positive results led Ballard to incorporate Zenyatta material into a fuel cell stack in order to test it under realistic operating environments.
- • In July 2016, the Company hired James Jordan, P.Eng., to oversee all metallurgical functions related to the development of a pilot plant. The purposes of the pilot plant are:
1. To create additional high purity graphite for the customers requesting additional material for testing, and 2. To further define the most efficient process flow sheet for the recovery of high purity product during the pre-feasibility stage. The end user testing is designed to further qualify the high purity graphite material for applications such as lithium ion batteries, fuel cells, powder metallurgy and graphene production for composite materials like concrete.
• On September 8, 2016, the Company announced it had signed a Collaboration Agreement (‘Agreement’) with Larisplast Ltd. (“Larisplast”), an Israeli business that specializes in the field of concrete admixtures. Zenyatta and Larisplast have both received grant funding from the Canada-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation under the Ontario-Israel Collaboration Program to further test the effect of adding graphene generated from Zenyatta’s Albany graphite to concrete on a pilot scale. Upon successful completion of pilot plant testing, the Agreement contemplates the formation of a new corporation (‘Newco’) jointly owned (50/50) by Zenyatta and Larisplast for the purposes of marketing this new specialized admixture product globally. Zenyatta would be the exclusive provider of purified graphite to Newco and any other party working with Larisplast on this technology.
The main objective of the collaboration is to develop a new concrete admixture with improved mechanical properties by adding Albany derived graphene. Albany graphite was found to exfoliate under sonication (sound energy process) much easier and with higher yields of graphene nano-particles than any other natural graphite types that were tested at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (‘BGU’) in Israel. Initial application testing at BGU shows that the addition of the Company’s graphene to concrete achieves a faster curing time and superior mechanical performance that inhibits premature failure and tolerates large forces produced during earthquakes or explosions. Also, this new admixture has the potential to reduce the amount of cement that will be used in construction, thereby considerably cutting carbon dioxide emissions related to its production.
• On September 26, 2016, the Company announced it had commenced a two-part metallurgical program designed to provide data for the start of a pre-feasibility phase on its Albany graphite project located in northern Ontario, Canada. The program will be carried out at SGS Canada Inc. (“SGS”) in Lakefield, Ontario under the supervision of Zenyatta’s project manager James Jordan, P.Eng. as follows:
Part 1 - Production of Larger Market Samples: The first part of the metallurgical test work is designed to produce larger market samples of high-purity graphite which will permit continued graphite and graphene application validation by potential end-user partners, academic institutions and third party testing facilities under the general market and business development program. The market sample is being prepared from concentrate produced during flotation pilot plant testing completed in 2014. It is anticipated that approximately 50 kilograms of high-purity graphite material will be produced using the caustic bake / leach method, previously employed to produce high-purity market samples. Approximately 10 tonnes of drill core was processed and was representative of the mineralized zones defined in the July 9, 2015 Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”). Test work on small market samples completed to date has successfully confirmed the Albany graphite to have a very good crystal structure (hexagonal) with a very desirable purity and particle size for various applications such as lithium ion batteries, fuel cells, powder metallurgy and graphene production.
Part 2 - Optimization and Pilot Scale Test Work: The second part of the metallurgical test work will focus on optimization of flow sheet parameters followed by a pilot scale simulation of a commercial process designed for the pre-feasibility study. This program will be a continuation of metallurgical testing completed for the PEA. Zenyatta has shipped approximately 6 tonnes of composite coarse reject material (from drill core) to SGS for this pilot plant testing. The composite material was taken from 19 drill holes from the East Pipe and 23 drill holes from the West Pipe of the Albany graphite deposit. This optimization and pilot program will be on-going for the next several months and completed in early
2017.
• On November 21, 2016, the Company announced it had produced a larger market sample designed to provide samples to various global corporations and academic institutions for application testing under a non-disclosure agreement. A total of 57 kilograms of high-purity graphite material at a carbon purity of 99.9% was produced using the caustic bake/leach method, which was previously employed to produce high-purity market samples. This market sample will permit continued graphite and graphene validation testing by potential end-user partners, academic institutions and third party testing facilities under Zenyatta’s general market and business development program.
• On November 23, 2016, the Company announced the delivery of 10 kilograms of high-purity Albany graphite to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Larisplast Ltd. in Israel for the start of the next phase of testing of a pilot plant scale program. The main objective of the pilot plant in Israel is to further test a new concrete admixture containing Albany derived graphene but with a much larger volume of concrete. The scientific and engineering data obtained will yield valuable information for potentially designing a larger scale demonstration plant. Recently, Ben-Gurion University demonstrated that the addition of the Company’s graphene into concrete can achieve a faster curing time and a superior mechanical performance that inhibits premature failure and tolerates large forces like those produced during earthquakes or explosions. Also, this new admixture has the potential to reduce the amount of cement that will be used in construction, thereby considerably cutting carbon dioxide emissions related to its production. 20
• On November 30, 2016, the Company announced that Dr. Yoshihiko Arao and Professor Masatoshi Kubouchi at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan demonstrated the ease and high-yield conversion of Albany graphite to graphene.
- • On January 30, 2017, the Company announced the addition of Mr. Sean Whiteford to the Board of Directors. Mr. Whiteford is a well-respected mining industry leader with over 25 years of mineral exploration and operational experience. He is currently COO of Osgood Mountains Gold, a private gold exploration company in Nevada. Prior to that Sean held various executive positions with Cliffs Natural Resources, including VP Exploration and VP Eastern Canada Iron Ore Operations, while based in Cleveland, Ohio. He started his career with BHP Utah Mines and spent 13 years with Rio Tinto Group in various corporate, operational and geological technical roles in Australia, Canada and the USA. Mr. Whiteford has B.Sc. in Geology from the University of Windsor and has also completed the Advanced Management Program at Columbia Business School.
The Company also announced that metallurgical work is progressing well at SGS under the guidance of James Jordan, Project Manager for Zenyatta. This is the second part of the metallurgical testing program designed to optimize the flow sheet parameters. Flotation pilot testing continues on the composite material which was taken from the East Pipe and West Pipe of the Albany graphite deposit. Importantly, preliminary results to date show consistent improvement in metallurgical performance with similar concentrate grades and recoveries obtained from both the East and West Pipe graphite material. Once the final metallurgical testing is complete, the process flow sheet and associated engineering data will then be fed into the up-coming pre-feasibility study. This optimization and pilot program will be on-going for the next several months and completed in the second quarter of 2017.
- • On February 8, 2017, the Company announced that classification testing by Hosokawa on a larger batch of high-purity graphite material showed a consistent and desirable particle size distribution (‘PSD’) similar to that obtained from a previous but smaller batch regardless of whether it was East or West pipe material. The Albany deposit PSD was found to be in a range that is desirable for many clean-tech graphite and graphene applications. A consistent raw material source is critical to maintain longer term quality control for product specifications. Zenyatta’s Albany graphite deposit shows this important consistency on PSD.
- • On March 1, 2017, the Company announced that a team of scientists under the direction of Dr. Aicheng Chen at Lakehead University has made significant advancements related to sensing application development with the first graphene oxide (GO) invention produced from the Company’s high-purity Albany graphite. Dr. Chen and his team have developed a novel one-pot synthesis of fluorine functionalized graphene oxide (F-GO) which can be used in many energy, environmental and electrochemical sensing applications. The produced F-GO has been tested for the simultaneous detection of various toxic metal ions (e.g. mercury, lead, cadmium and copper) and a substantial improvement in the electrochemical sensing performance was achieved in comparison with GO.
- • On April 6, 2017, the Company announced successful initial test results from research carried out by Dr. Alan Dalton at the University of Sussex, UK in the use of Zenyatta graphene in rubber composite and emulsion applications. Sussex easily exfoliated Zenyatta graphite via sonication to produce graphene which was then homogenously dispersed into a rubber composite. A several fold improvement in the electrical and thermal properties of the rubber composite along with increased strength and elasticity was realized by adding as little as 0.5% Zenyatta graphene.
In addition, Scientists at Sussex have developed techniques to produce solid-stabilized water-in-oil suspensions known as emulsions. Exfoliated graphite or graphene can be used as the stabilizing solid for these emulsions. These emulsions can then be used in new applications where the control of electrical and thermal properties is critical for performance. Examples of such applications include inkjet printing, thin wires, stress sensors and supercapacitors. Sussex has developed a method to produce the graphene directly in the emulsion, but the homogeneity and yield of the Zenyatta produced graphene determined the success and usefulness of the suspension. In the past, the low yields and lack of homogenous graphene from other sources resulted in insufficient concentration of graphene and required further processing with a centrifuge. Recent results with Zenyatta’s Albany graphite demonstrated superior homogenous graphene production with high yields thus allowing production of conductive liquid suspensions directly. These emulsions show excellent conductivity controls at graphene concentrations of approximately 1% or less.
- • On April 25, 2017, the Company announced that the completed flotation pilot testing portion of the ongoing metallurgical work has yielded successful results. The metallurgical testing is part of the pre-feasibility work for the Albany Graphite Deposit. The metallurgical work is being carried out at SGS Canada Inc in Lakefield, Ontario under the guidance of metallurgist James Jordan. The completed flotation pilot testing work was performed on two composites from the East Pipe and the West Pipe of the Albany graphite deposit. Significantly, results show consistent improvement in metallurgical performance with similar concentrate grades and recoveries obtained from both the East and West Pipe graphite zone material.
- • On May 16, 2017, the Company announced the successful testing of the Company’s graphene oxide material by a leading U.S. based advanced materials company (‘U.S. Co.’) developing silicon-graphene anodes for the next generation of lithium-ion batteries. Preliminary results show ease of processing with Zenyatta’s graphene oxide and similar electrochemical performance compared to the control material that is currently being used by U.S. Co. The good dispersion qualities and electrochemical performance of the Company’s material are desirable properties for silicon-graphene batteries. Zenyatta’s high-purity graphite was recently converted to graphene oxide by Dr. Aicheng Chen, Professor at Lakehead University, and then sent to the U.S. Co. for testing as an advanced nano-material in a new Lithium-ion battery.
Lithium-ion batteries are widely used globally for portable electronic devices and electric vehicles. Unfortunately, lithium-ion batteries still lack the required level of energy storage to completely meet the demands of such applications as electric vehicles. A new silicon-graphene composite anode enables higher capacity and faster charging batteries that could meet consumer demand for increasing power and range. U.S. Co. will continue to carry out advanced testing on Zenyatta’s graphene oxide for use in Lithium-ion anode composite material. Additional testing will include the determination of the following: aqueous dispersion quality; compatibility with processing method and yield; electrochemical performance; and, characterization of the composite material.
- • On May 25, 2017, the Company announced that the next phase to test a concrete admixture containing graphene is progressing through their Collaboration Agreement with Larisplast Ltd. (“Larisplast”), an Israeli business that specializes in the field of concrete admixtures. The 10 kg market sample of high-purity graphite that was sent to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel (“BGU”) will allow for the testing and optimization of a much larger volume of concrete which could be in a range between 5 and 10 tonnes. Zenyatta and Larisplast have both received grant funding from the Canada-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation under the Ontario-Israel Collaboration. The main objective of this pilot plant is to further test a much larger volume of concrete utilizing an admixture containing Albany derived graphene. The scientific and engineering data obtained will yield valuable information for potentially designing a larger scale demonstration plant. In 2016 BGU demonstrated that the addition of the Company’s graphene into concrete can achieve a faster curing time and a superior mechanical performance that inhibits premature failure and tolerates large forces like those produced during earthquakes or explosions. Also, this new admixture has the potential to reduce the amount of cement that will be used in construction, thereby considerably cutting carbon dioxide emissions related to its production.
In November 2016 Zenyatta delivered 10 kilograms of high-purity Albany graphite to BGU that was converted to graphene for optimization and testing before supplying the material to Larisplast for testing as a concrete admixture. The testwork includes the following: BGU will perform a variety of quality control measurements; BGU will run a series of dispersion experiments on Zenyatta’s graphene; Larisplast and BGU will employ the optimized procedure using scaled-up infrastructure; The optimized graphene dispersion will then be incorporated into concrete composites; The produced graphene reinforced concrete will be tested for both short and long term strength and compressive and flexural stresses; Larisplast will adjust and optimize the scaled-up process.
- • On June 15, 2017, announced a program for a scaled up production method of the Company’s graphite to graphene oxide (“GO”) for applications in water remediation, electrochemical sensors, supercapacitors and Li-ion batteries. The program is receiving grant funding from the Ontario Centres for Excellence (OCE) to allow a team of scientists under the direction of Dr. Aicheng Chen at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, to carry out this advanced nano-material research. The World Bank considers water security to be one of the top priorities. Water used for drinking and agriculture is under a global risk with a projected 40% shortfall between forecast demand and supply by 2030. A graphene-oxide membrane exhibits some unique properties and may drastically improve the efficiency of desalination and water remediation. In addition, the world deals with threats to human health and pollution due to the increase of various toxic metal ions entering the environment. GO and modified GO may facilitate the development of high-performance electrochemical sensors to effectively detect and monitor these pollutants.
The OCE Voucher for Innovation and Productivity II (VIP II) program is titled "Fabrication of Graphene Based Nanomaterials from Zenyatta Graphite for Energy and Environmental Applications". The OCE VIP II helps established Ontario-based companies develop, implement and commercialize technical innovations by supporting partnerships with publicly-funded post-secondary institutions. The focus of the research work will be on scaling up production methods for Zenyatta’s graphite to GO, a first critical step towards commercialization of the technology. The OCE VIP II $100,000 grant will be administered over two years and Zenyatta will be contributing $50,000 in cash and $60,000 in-kind support to the project. This OCE grant work will be a continuation of the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada Collaborative Research and Development grant awarded to Dr. Chen, Professor of Chemistry and Canada Research Chair in Materials and Environmental Chemistry in 2015.
- • On July 25, 2017, the Company announced the formation of a wholly owned subsidiary called ZEN-tech Materials Limited (“ZEN-tech”) with a registration in England and Wales. ZEN-tech will focus on the development and commercialization activities of graphene applications and the allocation of any associated intellectual property (‘IP’) and worldwide licensing. The formation of ZEN-tech is a strategic move that will provide a vehicle to capture value and advance downstream graphene application development separate from the upstream mineral development Company. Zenyatta will continue to focus on advancing the Albany graphite deposit towards production and will supply highly crystalline, purified graphite to ZEN-tech and other end users.
Graphene has shown to enhance the properties of many existing products. The technology pipeline for ZEN-tech includes graphene applications for concrete composites, rubber composites, sensors, filtration, emulsions and silicon-graphene batteries. The formation of a subsidiary will help facilitate the integration of Zenyatta graphene into the next generation of commercial technologies providing industries with advanced materials that have improved performance.
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