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To: toccodolce who wrote (229245)	6/13/2013 6:57:13 PM
From: hoov	6 Recommendations Recommended By Anchan cole steel Eva LoneClone Merlot and 1 more member Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 314176

I prefer to call ZEN's deposit hydrothermal, because it is not limited to narrow veins as are the hydrothermal deposits in Sri Lanka. It is the latter graphite that has generated the lump/vein concept. ZEN's graphite is more diluted, if you will, as the bulk of the hydrothermal deposit is silica and feldspar, with maybe 5-6% as graphite. So, we now have two types of hydrothermal graphite deposits: ZEN's Albany, which is a massive pipe; and vein/lump, which is found in Sri Lanka, and a couple deposits in Canada, the Miller and the Walker deposits, both NW of Montreal, and other places as well. In contrast, flake graphite is formed when carbon-bearing sedimentary rock is put under heat and pressure, and it is recrystallized via metamorphism. Each flake is a remnant of a sedimentary layer of organic material. It is not true that only flake can be used for e.g. lithium ion batteries. ZEN's graphite may be suitable for this application, and some synthetic graphites are currently used. I don't think anybody has a lock on that market. Purity is a big issue, as the contaminants are what causes the battery to not have unlimited cycles before it fails. We'll just have to see how the tests of ZEN's graphite, that are sure to come, play out. Pebble bed reactor/nuclear grade graphite is not made from flake graphite, although a couple producers do use some of it in a blended product, alongside synthetic. There are 17 specific physical characteristics that must be met for nuclear grade graphite, and one of those is near-perfect isotropy. As flake graphite is inherently anisotropic, they'd have to significantly degrade the flake structure to include it at all. And then you have to face the purity issue. Flake graphite almost always contains intercalated minerals, which is to say other substances sandwiched between the graphite layers. Because graphite is impervious to acids, bases, and heat, it can be extremely difficult to remove all the contaminants, as some are protected inside a graphite sandwich. Flake graphite producers are trying to get around the anisotropy problem and the contamination problem by making spherical graphite, which is nothing more than short chunks of flakes, sort of semi-spherical potato shapes. These particles are also very small, ranging in size between 10 and 30 microns. At that scale, the particles can pack into an isotropic bulk solid, and the fragmentation does allow for better purification via acid and heat, but at the expense of yield. They purify to large flake (usually the cleanest flake), and then they chop it all up. ZEN's graphite is already in micron-scale particles, and it purifies to 99.99% with a two-stage purification process, with nearly complete yield. What we don't yet know are the other characteristics of this graphite. As I mentioned, there are 17 criteria for nuclear-grade graphite. See: astm.org I bet there are at least ten for Li-ion batteries. In the end, whoever can meet the end-user's wish list of properties will get the business. Nobody's right and nobody's wrong, yet. I can easily foresee that ZEN and all the flakers will serve different markets altogether, that is how different their graphites are from one another. Lar

To: toccodolce who wrote (229245)	6/14/2013 12:03:09 AM
From: Cogito Ergo Sum	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 314176

The Asian nation currently produces a very small amount of graphite — about 4,000 metric tons (MT) yearly, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). But Sri Lanka’s graphite is a unique product. The country produces lump and chippy dust graphite and is the world’s only source of these particular materials. Lump and chippy dust graphite are the highest-value graphite products found globally, the USGS notes. In 2012, prices for Sri Lankan lump and chip graphite averaged $1,990 per MT, significantly higher than prices reported for other products, such as flake or amorphous graphite. Will the opening of the Sri Lankan mining sector give junior companies access to this sought-after commodity? plumbagographite.com SM: Focus Graphite Inc. ( FCSMF.PK) and its Lac Knife project is also a strong prospect. The company is also looking at the technology and processing side more than other companies, which is a positive sign. One other interesting project in Canada is by Zenyatta Ventures Ltd. ( ZENYF.PK). I like it because it's vein graphite, and this is the only known deposit of its type outside of Sri Lanka. Vein graphite is much cheaper and easier to mine and process. This could offer the company a significant cost advantage. In Sri Lanka, the graphite is found in lumps that they can hand mine, crush and size. Its purity is so high that no flotation is needed. Skipping this part can save a lot of time and money. The company hasn't promoted the deposit heavily-certainly not as a vein deposit, which it really should. The project marketing has been about trying to compete based on resource size and grade with the rest of the juniors. But it should focus on the purity of graphite in the ground. seekingalpha.com