The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
GPH: TSX.V
Executive Chairman: Doug Smith
President and CEO: Anthony Huston
General Manager, Operations: David Hembree
Graphite One Resources Inc. is focused on advancing the Graphite Creek project in western Alaska to production as quickly as possible.
Over the previous two years, the company has drilled 28 holes which have resulted in an inferred resource of 186.9 million metric tons grading 5.5 percent graphite.
The current deposit represents drilling along less than 30 percent of an 18-kilometer- (11.2 miles) long conductor zone revealed by an extensive airborne magnetic-electromagnetic survey flown in 2012 and the drilling completed to date has demonstrated a close correlation between the conductor and graphite in the ground.
With a 10.35-million-metric-ton inferred graphite resource, Graphite One has little need to expand the breadth of the deposit.
A drill program that began in August, focused on upgrading a portion of the deposit's inferred resource to the higher confidence measured and indicated category.
This drilling targeted a region of the deposit where near-surface intercepts up to 50 meters of 10 percent graphite had previously been encountered.
The upgraded resource will be used to inform a preliminary economic assessment, scheduled to be completed by the second quarter of 2015.
With the goal of producing a product that can compete with the synthetic graphite market and meets the needs of potential end users, metallurgy has been a key focus of Graphite One.
In April, the company reported that metallurgical tests on samples from Graphite Creek have returned grades topping 99.9 percent carbon.
SGS Canada, which completed the testing, achieved the nearly pure graphite in a two-step process of leaching a flotation concentrate containing 92 percent carbon.
Graphite One's 2014 field program includes the collection of mini-bulk samples from the surface and drill core, which can be used to continue the development and simplification of a process to produce graphite of the purity required for lithium-ion batteries.
Spherical graphite is used to make the anodes in lithium-ion batteries and is manufactured from the flake concentrate produced by graphite mining operations.
Natural graphite produced from mining typically has recoveries from 70 to plus-90 percent graphitic carbon, whereas synthetic graphite is usually greater than 99 percent.
With initial tests from Graphite Creek concentrates being above 99 percent graphite, the company hopes to be positioned to compete in the $13-billion, or 1.5 million-metric-ton-per-year, synthetic graphite market.
The Graphite Creek property is located about 40 miles north of Nome and about 24 miles (39 kilometers) east of Port Clarence, which state and federal agencies are considering as a location for a deep-sea port to serve as a base to protect national interests, support ship traffic and serve economic development in the Bering Straits region of western Alaska.
Cash and short-term deposits: C$244,088 (June 30, 2014; closed C$2 million financing Aug. 27, 2014)
Working capital: C$1.85 million (Aug. 27, 2014)
Market capitalization: C$20.9 million (Sept. 26, 2014)
1280 - 885 West Georgia St.
Vancouver, BC
Canada, V6C 3E8
Tel: 604-681-8780
Fax: 604-681-8775
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