Grafite e grafene i materiali del futuro ?

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Mi pare una buona notizia

NORTHERN GRAPHITE ADVANCES COATING TECHNOLOGY
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(OTTAWA, Ontario – March 8, 2016) NORTHERN GRAPHITE CORPORATION (TSX-V:NGC) (the “Company” or “Northern”) announces that a major international engineering company has completed a scoping study with respect to the Company’s proprietary coating process. Coating is one of the steps in upgrading graphite mine concentrate to spherical graphite (“SPG”), the anode material used in lithium ion batteries (LiBs”). Capital costs are estimated at approximately US$3.2 million (including a 35% contingency) for a facility to coat 5,000 tonnes per year of SPG. Operating costs were estimated to be less than US$0.20/kg.

The manufacture of SPG involves three main steps, milling (to micronize and round the flakes), purification and coating. It typically takes three tonnes of flake graphite concentrate to produce one tonne of SPG due to losses in the process and this is a major cost. Micronization and rounding are relatively straightforward and can be done with readily available equipment. The Company is in the process of completing capital and operating cost estimates for a plant that will have the capacity to mill 10,000 tonnes of concentrate per year and produce 5,000 tonnes of SPG. This will represent approximately half of the proposed production from the Bissett Creek deposit. It will be integrated with results from the coating and previously announced purification studies (see February 8, 2016 announcement), to provide a complete cost competitive, environmentally sustainable alternative to the methods employed in China.

Almost all natural graphite based SPG is produced in China, largely because of the availability of cheap graphite, the use of hydrofluoric acid in the purification step, and weak environmental regulations. Northern’s proprietary purification technology represents the first viable, cost competitive alternative to the Chinese wet chemical approach.

Coating is mainly done by a few large Japanese, South Korean and Chinese companies and consists of a number of steps centered around covering the graphite sphere with a protective carbon layer that makes it more durable and improves electrochemical performance. Uncoated SPG sells for US$2,500/t while coated SPG sells for $8,000-12,000/t which reflects the costs and complexities involved. Northern’s proprietary process is an alternative coating technique which involves fewer and simpler steps leading to much lower costs.

Gregory Bowes, CEO commented: “Our proprietary coating technology performed very well in initial coin cell tests and we have now demonstrated that it is very cost competitive. The next stage is extensive life cycle testing in 18650 cells and assuming results continue to be positive, we will do a pilot plant test to optimize and refine operating parameters.”

 

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Focus Graphite Announces Pending Sale of Grafoid Shares and Other Benefits Tied to Grafoid’s MOU with China’s Xiamen Tungsten Co.

Updates Progress on Focus Graphite's Lac Knife Project

OTTAWA, ONTARIO - March 23, 2016 - Focus Graphite Inc., (Focus Graphite or “the Company”) (TSX-V: FMS; OTCQX: FCSMF; FSE: FKC) is pleased to announce its affiliate, Grafoid Inc., and Xiamen Tungsten Co. Ltd. (Xiamen), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the establishment of a strategic joint venture partnership.

The MOU establishes terms for Xiamen’s acquisition of up to a 20% equity position in Grafoid through the purchase of common shares – including up to 7,000,000 Grafoid common shares currently held by Focus Graphite and; it provides Focus Graphite with a portal in China for the future sale of value added graphite products through its strategic partnership with Xiamen. Focus Graphite, with 7.9 million shares, is the largest shareholder in Grafoid.

In summary, the MOU between Grafoid and Xiamen sets out parameters for actions that meet both parties’ immediate and long-term business objectives through a joint venture arrangement. They include:

• Xiamen’s desire to build a clean energy technology platform and introduce those technologies to the China market
• Grafoid’s goals for developing industrial applications to open the China market for the commercialization of its suite of Mesograf™ and Amphioxide ™ graphene based products
• The fulfillment of Focus Graphite’s desire to move forward with the development of the company’s Lac Knife, Québec natural flake graphite project, and supply global markets with high purity, value-added, cost-competitive graphite products while supporting the next generation battery development platform of Grafoid, Focus Graphite, Stria Lithium Inc., and Braille Battery Inc.
• The establishment of Xiamen’s business office at the Grafoid Global Technology Center in Kingston, Ontario to provide Xiamen with a North American base for future business expansion, and; the establishment of a Grafoid business office in China

A due diligence process will be concluded by May 22, 2016.

A publicly traded company listed on the Shanghai Exchange, Xiamen Tungsten is China’s leader in smelting, processing and export of tungsten and other non-ferrous metal products; the operation of rare earth business interests, and; the supply of battery materials. It has annual revenues in excess of 10.143B CNY ($1.55B US).

Advancing the Lac Knife Graphite Project

Focus Graphite CEO and Director Gary Economo said the proceeds from the pending sale of Grafoid shares held by Focus Graphite will be applied to the company’s continuing efforts to bring the Lac Knife Project into production.

“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,” Mr. Economo said.

“Specifically, this injection of funding could enable Focus Graphite to advance our Lac Knife detailed engineering and finalize the environmental permitting process” said Mr. Economo. “And, it enables us to move to the next stage in assembling our mine CAPEX financing.”

Focus Graphite continues its graphite testing. Customer requirements will come from battery manufacturers and from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers in North America, Asia and Europe associated with the 2015 Focus-Grafoid “Energy” and “Polymer Offtakes.”

“The agreement leaves us potentially well positioned to provide a secure and reliable source of graphite feedstock for the Grafoid-Xiamen joint venture,” Mr. Economo said.

“With regard to our green energy development focus,” said Mr. Economo, “Grafoid’s agreement with Xiamen Tungsten encourages our continued collaborative efforts with Grafoid, Stria Lithium Inc., and Braille Battery Inc. to expand our efforts in China and Asia for next generation battery development.”

On September 25, 2015, Focus Graphite announced it had concluded two definitive, 10-year offtake agreements in a related party transaction with Grafoid for the purchase of Lac Knife graphite concentrate.

The first offtake agreement (the "Graphene Offtake," commits Grafoid to acquire, at its discretion, up to an annual maximum of 1,000 tonnes of high-purity (98.3% total carbon "Ct")(1) large flake (+80 mesh) graphite concentrate annually from the Lac Knife Project for 10 years, representing up to 6.8% of the projected annual production of 14,606 tonnes of high-purity large flake concentrate. (Taken from Technical Report on The Lac Knife Graphite Feasibility Study, available at www.sedar.com under Focus Graphite Inc)

(1) 98.3% Ct purity is the average of 6 pilot plant runs. The pilot plant program was completed in 2013 by SGS Canada Inc., located in Lakefield, Ontario. See news release dated August 21, 2013.

The second offtake agreement (the "Polymer Offtake") commits Grafoid to acquire, at its discretion, up to 25,000 tonnes of 97.8% Ct (average concentrate grade for all flake sizes) graphite concentrate annually from the Lac Knife Project for 10 years, representing up to 56.4% of the projected total annual production of 44,300 tonnes (all flake sizes). (Taken from Technical Report on The Lac Knife Graphite Feasibility Study.)

About Xiamen Tungsten

Xiamen Tungsten Co., Ltd. is China’s largest producer and exporter of tungsten products. Its investment in technology upgrades and metallurgical innovation have narrowed the East-West gap in product quality compared to foreign enterprises and, the company is currently expanding its investments in clean energy technologies to move in lockstep with China’s march toward a low carbon economy.

It has annual revenues in excess of 10.143B CNY ($1.55B US).

During the last decade, with a view to upgrading its competitive position in global markets, Xiamen, through acquisition and investment has expanded its business from a tungsten company to a technology oriented conglomerate in control of its complete manufacturing chains.

Xiamen Tungsten is listed on the Shanghai Exchange under the numerical
symbol: 600549.

 

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CANADA STRATEGIC TSXV: CJC AND LOMIKO TSXV: LMR FILE


NI43-101 REPORT FOR LA LOUTRE PROPERTY

Montreal, Quebec and Vancouver, British-Columbia – March 24, 2016 - Canada Strategic

Metals Inc. (“Canada Strategic Metals” or “the Company”) (TSX.V: CJC; FSE: YXEN; OTC-BB:

CJCFF) and Lomiko Metals Inc. (TSX-V:LMR, OTC:LMRMF, FSEH8B) announces that, further to


their news release of February 9, 2016, they have filed their National Instrument 43-101

technical report titled “Technical Report and Mineral Resource Estimate for the La Loutre

Property” dated March 24, 2016, on Sedar (www.sedar.com).


The Resource for the La Loutre Flake Graphite Property of 18.4 M Tonnes of 3.19% Indicated

and 16.7 M Tonnes at 3.75% Flake Graphite Inferred with a cut-off of 1.5%. The sensitivity table

also features 4.1 M Tonnes of 6.5% Indicated and 6.2 M Tonnes at 6.1% Flake Graphite Inferred

with a cut-off of 3%. The Resource is estimated on the Graphene-Battery Zone only and does

not include recent high grade intercepts of 28.5 metres of 16.53% Cg and 21.5 metres of 11.53%

Cg reported January 6, 2016 and 9% over 90.75 metres reported September 24th, 2015 from the


Refractory Zone.

The La Loutre property consists of contiguous claim blocks totalling approximately 2,867.29

hectares (28.67 km2) situated approximately 53 km east of Imerys Carbon and Graphite,


formerly known as the Timcal Graphite Mine, North America’s only operating graphite mine,

and 117 km northwest of the International Port of Montreal, key to shipping to North America

and Europe. Lomiko is currently completing an option to acquire 80% of the property which

requires $665,000 more in work and issuing of 1.5 Million shares to be issue February 15th, 2016.


The La Loutre Resource is constrained within a drilled area of approximately 900 m along the

N150° striking trend of the graphitic paragneiss, 250 m across the strike and 300 m below

surface. Geological interpretation and mineral resource estimation were based on 62 NQ-size

drill holes (totaling 8,193.3 m) drilled by Lomiko and Canada Strategic Metals in 2014 and 2015.

 

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L'unione fa la forza:

Graphite Companies Join Forces for Spherical Graphite Development

(Toronto, Ontario – March 29, 2016) Elcora Advanced Materials Corp (TSXV:ERA) ("Elcora"), Northern Graphite Corporation (TSXV:NGC) (“Northern”), Nouveau Monde Mining Enterprises Inc. (TSXV: NOU) (“Nouveau Monde”), Metals of Africa Limited (ASX:MTA) (“MTA”), Coulometrics LLC (“Coulometrics”) and a private industry partner are pleased to announce that they are jointly acquiring a micronizing and spheronizing mill to produce spherical graphite (“SPG”), a critical step in the production of anode material used in lithium ion batteries (“LIBs”).

The mill will be added to Coulometrics’ battery production and test facility. Considerable work has already been completed by Coulometrics to produce SPG and to evaluate many different suppliers of spheronizing equipment. Northern Graphite has financially supported most of this work and has agreed to share its current knowledge on spheronizing with the other participating companies. All of the participating companies will share in any spheronizing technologies that are developed going forward. The spheronizing equipment will be used to evaluate and optimize the yield of SPG from various graphite mine concentrates and to develop next generation and high-yield spheronization technology to meet the demanding cost targets for automotive LIB applications. Ultimately, the goal of all the parties is to achieve full qualification of their materials by LIB manufacturing companies.

The development and testing process will be lead by Dr. Edward Buiel who commented: "The addition of the spheronizing equipment will enable us to produce and test Coated Spherical Purified Graphite “C-SPG” from end to end within North America. This will rapidly advance our C-SPG development efforts and we believe it is the first real effort by junior graphite companies to address the needs of the LIB industry. It also demonstrates the commitment of those involved to develop next generation, high performance anode materials for LIBs which will provide a significant cost advantage and a greatly reduced environmental impact. They will also represent a major improvement over methods currently employed in China.”

Coulometrics is a leading provider of energy storage consulting services and advanced battery component manufacturing services. Dr. Edward Buiel, owner of Coulometrics, has a Ph. D. in Physics and 20 years of experience developing carbon-based materials for lithium ion batteries and supercapacitors. Coulometrics has a unique combination of expertise that includes graphite processing for lithium ion batteries and full cell electrode coating, calendaring, cell assembly, and testing.

For further information please contact Troy Grant, President and CEO of Elcora (902) 802-8847, Gregory Bowes, CEO of Northern (613) 241-9959, Eric Desaulniers, President and CEO of Nouveau Monde
(819) 923-0333 or Cherie Leeden, Managing Director of MTA +61 8 9322 7600.

Elcora was founded in 2011 and has been structured to become a vertically integrated graphite & graphene company that mines, processes, refines graphite, and produces both the graphene and end graphene applications. As part of the vertical integration strategy, Elcora has secured high-grade graphene precursor graphite from its interest in the operation of the Ragedara mine in Sri Lanka. Elcora has developed a unique low cost effective process to make graphene that is commercially scalable. This combination means that Elcora has the tools and resources for graphene vertical integration. Ian Flint, Ph.D., P. Geo., is the Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101 who has reviewed and is responsible for the Elcora technical information presented in this news release.

Northern’s Bissett Creek graphite deposit is an advanced, pre-development stage project that has a Feasibility Study and its major environmental permit. Subject to the completion of operational and species at risk permitting, which are at an advanced stage, Northern is in a position to commence construction in 2016 subject to the availability of financing. The Bissett Creek project is located close to infrastructure in eastern Canada, has the highest reported percentage of large/XL/XXL flake, and a reasonable capital cost.

Nouveau Monde owns the Matawinie graphite project on which the company delineated, in February 2016, a graphite resource estimate totaling 48.6 Mt at a grade of 3.97 % Cg in the Indicated Category and 34.7 Mt at a grade of 4.08 % Cg in the Inferred Category. The project is located in the Saint-Michel-des-Saints area, some 130 km north of Montreal, Quebec, Canada with direct access to all needed infrastructure, labor and green and affordable hydroelectricity. Nouveau Monde is developing its project with the highest corporate social responsibility standards and the lowest environmental footprint (targeting a net zero carbon emission operation). A 43-101 Preliminary Economical Assessment will be delivered around the end of Q2 2016.

The technical content of this press release was reviewed by Eric Desaulniers, M.Sc., P.Geo., a Qualified Person under NI 43-101 guidelines, except for information with respect to Elcora and MTA.

Metals of Africa Ltd (ASX:MTA) has successfully delineated, high quality and grade graphite resources in Mozambique, East Africa. The 100% owned Montepuez Resource boasts 61.6Mt @ 10.3% TGC and the nearby Balama Central Resource contains 16.3 Mt at 10.4% TGC that was defined in less than one month of drilling - both resources remain open in all directions. The company has uniquely positioned itself amongst its peers, to now quickly transition into development with an extremely low cost operating profile. MTA prides itself on its environmental best practice policies, zero harm and ongoing positive community development programs.

 

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Buone notizie da Ballard Power Systems

Zenyatta & Ballard Power Systems Achieve Success on Performance Testing Using Natural Albany Graphite versus Synthetic Graphite in a Fuel Cell Stack


Thunder Bay, ON – 29 March 2016 – Zenyatta Ventures Ltd. (“Zenyatta” or “Company”) (TSXV: ZEN) and Ballard Power Systems Inc. (“Ballard”) (TSX: BLD; Nasdaq: BLDP) are pleased to announce 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).

1. 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.

Synthetic graphite is not only used in major components of fuel cells, but also many other applications such as the manufacture of anodes for lithium-ion batteries and the fabrication of high-purity graphite powder into complex industrial parts. It is a large and high value global market (~US$15 Billion) that is growing rapidly but the cost to produce synthetic graphite is high and its production also has significant environmental impacts. Finding alternative graphite with a cost and environmental advantage is important as the global green movement against pollution intensifies. Zenyatta has shown an estimated operating cost of ~US$2 per kilogram for purified Albany graphite in the preliminary economic assessment and can also potentially show a significant environmental advantage over synthetic graphite.



The fuel cell market is showing high growth potential globally. Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells convert hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity and water. This technology has the potential for wide-spread usage in many sectors, including transportation and stationary energy applications. Original Equipment Manufacturers (‘OEMs’) such as Honda and Toyota are already making fuel cell powered vehicles available in limited volumes. Significant efforts are also being made to develop hydrogen storage and distribution infrastructure.



Bharat Chahar, VP Market Development, Zenyatta noted that, “This is the fourth round of successful test results which continue to prove the suitability of Albany graphite in an exciting and high growth cleantech application like fuel cells. We are extremely pleased with the progress and Ballard’s involvement in testing the viability of Albany graphite in this application. It is very important to note that the material being tested by Ballard was ‘run-of-the-lab’ Albany graphite material produced with no special processing or customization for these tests.”



The membrane electrode assembly (‘MEA’), which includes the gas diffusion layer (‘GDL’), is a critical component of a PEM fuel cell that must meet exacting performance standards for the fuel cell to be robust and reliable. Ballard prototyped GDL’s from Zenyatta graphite, which included an anode and cathode sub layer, and then incorporated it into a MEA that was tested in a fuel cell stack to characterize fuel cell performance. Given the positive results from this Phase 4 testing, Zenyatta and Ballard will study the scale up of various fuel cell components made from Albany graphite and develop plans to carry out additional rigorous testing specifically related to automotive applications.



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.



Zenyatta Ventures Ltd. continues to develop the Albany graphite material from a deposit located in northeastern Ontario, Canada. The Company’s 100% owned graphite deposit is located 30 km north of the Trans-Canada Highway, power line and natural gas pipeline near the communities of Constance Lake First Nation and Hearst. A rail line is located 70 km away with an all-weather road approximately 10 km from the graphite deposit

 

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Anche Flinders si sta muovendo nel ricco mercato delle batterie agli ioni di litio

Flinders Provides Battery Grade Graphite Marketing Update
Vancouver, Canada – Flinders Resources Limited (“Flinders” or the “Company”) (TSXV: FDR) is pleased to provide the following update regarding the marketing to customers of high purity, battery grade graphite from the Company’s Woxna mine in Sweden.

Flinders 100% owned Woxna mine and concentrator in Sweden is the only publically listed modern full-scale, fully permitted (100,000 tonne/annum feed) operational graphite production facility. This facility has been fully commissioned and remains on a production-ready status until refractory grade graphite concentrate demand increases. This traditional graphite market is weak currently due to slow industrial markets that are showing little chance of rebounding in the short term, particularly with slowing growth rates in Brazil and China. (source – Benchmark Mineral Intelligence). Flinders believes it can produce value added products to offset this downturn in the traditional graphite market. The Company’s revenue stream can be enhanced by including value added products such as spherical high purity battery grade graphite in our product lines.

Flinders, with its Chinese technology partner, is now finalizing a flow sheet for the production of high purity battery grade graphite at the Woxna facility. This processing technology is based on the world’s only commercially proven purification methods that are utilized in China to supply the current global demand for high purity graphite demand. China is currently the only source for natural flake graphite processed to a quality suitable for the battery cell manufacturers. This technology has been utilised to produce high purity graphite samples from concentrate produced at the Woxna mine in Sweden.

The market is growing for battery-grade uncoated spherical graphite with orders continuing to grow and volumes increasing which is driving prices upward in excess of 3% in Q4 2015. Chinese EV production increased to over 340,000 units last year, up nearly 140% in Q4 2015 alone. This rapid growth in demand for batteries is expected to see sales of spherical graphite continue to grow. (source – Benchmark Mineral Intelligence).

The lithium ion battery is a significant part of the energy storage market which is driven primarily by the growing uptake of hybrid and electric vehicles. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence estimate that approximately 90% of spherical graphite produced around the world is used in energy storage. There is approximately 10 times more graphite than lithium required in a lithium ion battery. Traditionally spherical graphite has been made from artificial graphite because of its high quality and purity. Synthetic graphite is manufactured from oil refining by-products which is a very energy intensive and expensive process. Battery manufacturers are seeking alternatives to expensive synthetic graphite and high purity natural flake spherical graphite is the preferred option.

During April and May 2016, Flinders’ marketing team will undertake a global marketing tour, to demonstrate the Woxna high purity spherical graphite samples throughout the European Union, North America and Asia. The tour shall focus will be on auto and battery cell manufacturers, with the aim of developing commercial relationships that will enable Flinders to permit and construct a high purity graphite plant adjacent to the existing operational concentration facility.

Blair Way, President and CEO states, “Flinders is at the leading edge of an emerging industry that could be a game changer. With a fully permitted and operational mine and concentrator, we are able to produce graphite concentrate stock to feed into a proven commercial purification flow sheet. This is a significant milestone and key differentiator for Flinders in the graphite sector. No other public western world graphite company has established these key components necessary to be a supplier of battery grade graphite.”

 

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March 31, 2016: Focus Graphite Introduces a High Conductivity Graphite for Cathodes in Lithium-Ion Batteries Email not displaying correctly?
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Focus Graphite Introduces a High Conductivity Graphite for Cathodes in Lithium-Ion Batteries

Tests Support That Cathodes Using Lac Knife's Expanded Graphite Exhibit Twice the Conductivity of Cathodes with Standard Grades of Synthetic and Natural Flake Graphites Used Commercially in Lithium Ion Batteries

OTTAWA, ONTARIO-- March 31, 2016 - Focus Graphite Inc., (TSX VENTURE:FMS)(OTCQX:FCSMF)(FRANKFURT:FKC) is pleased to report that independent testing of expanded natural flake graphite from its Lac Knife, Québec Project demonstrate nearly double the electrical conductivity over standard grades of synthetic and natural graphite used in Li-Ion battery cathode applications.

The two-year project, involving the preparation and testing of intercalated*, expanded** and delaminated*** Lac Knife graphite was supervised by Dr. Joseph E. Doninger, Focus' Director of Manufacturing and Technology.

Testing was performed between 2014 and 2016 under three contracts with a highly reputable and recognized international firm, with additional scientific investigations using Ramen microscopy provided by a well-known U.S. university laboratory. The names of the internationally recognized facilities were withheld for commercially competitive reasons.

The project began with the development of a modified ASTM C 611 Four Point Resistivity Tester in 2014 to compare the conductivity of different grades of Lac Knife graphite with competitive graphites followed by the development of processes and equipment for the intercalation, expansion and delamination of Lac Knife graphite for use in Li-Ion and alkaline batteries.

The project concluded in a presentation by Dr. Doninger to the 33rd International Battery Seminar and Exhibition in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on March 23, 2016.

A PDF version of Dr. Doninger's technical presentation entitled "Long Term Cycling Performance and Conductivity Enhancement Characteristics of Lac Knife Flake Graphite from Quebec, Canada" is available here: http://focusgraphite.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/battery-presentation-fms.pdf

Expanded graphite is a form of processed natural crystalline flake, featuring dramatically improved electrical conductivity in electrode matrixes. Delaminated expanded flake is also preferable to conventional air-milled flake and/or premium quality synthetic graphites when higher conductivity properties are desired.

To view Figures 1 and 2, please click the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/FGFigs1-2.pdf

Due to its added-value benefits, expanded graphite typically commands larger revenue margins due to higher selling prices than the competitive grades of flake and synthetic graphite now being used for this application.

Niche markets that use expanded graphite include: specialty paints and coatings, cathodes of alkaline Zinc/Manganese Dioxide primary batteries, cathodes of zinc-air batteries and negative electrodes of lead-acid batteries.

Dr. Doninger said the test results lead to a number of potentially advantageous conclusions for using Lac Knife graphite in both the anodes and cathodes of Li Ion batteries to enhance overall battery efficiencies, including increased power, higher capacity, longer battery life and increased utilization of cathode active materials.

Current commercial pricing for these purified grades of synthetic and expanded flake graphite, said Dr. Doninger, varies from producer to producer, within a range of US $14,000 per metric tonne to upwards of US $30,000 per MT. The higher end of the price range is for a premium grade of synthetic graphite published in the Department of Energy-Argonne National Laboratory Annual Review report for the FreedomCAR Program in 2003.

"These data support our opinion that our value added expanded graphite products could leave Focus Graphite well positioned to compete successfully in international markets," said Dr. Doninger.

"And these high prices for graphites in the cathodes for Li Ion batteries, such as the Focus Lac Knife expanded graphite, creates an opportunity for continuing our research to achieve even greater conductivity enhancement additives," he added.

On May 27, 2014 the Company announced the potential for high value added sales in the Li-ion battery sector following battery coin cell tests performed on Spherical Graphite ("SPG") produced from the Lac Knife graphite concentrate for use in the anodes of Li Ion batteries and exhibited high reversible capacities and low first cycle capacity losses. Subsequent test results were published on February 26, 2015 showing that the Lac Knife SPG exceeded the performance of commercially available grades of synthetic graphite in coin cells and on November 25, 2015 announced that the Lac Knife SPG showed excellent long term cycling performance with essentially zero capacity loss after 110 cycles. These news releases are available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) under focus Graphite Inc.

 

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Vancouver, Canada – Flinders Resources Limited (“Flinders” or the “Company”) (TSXV: FDR) Flinders Resources Limited (TSXV: FDR) wishes to clarify its disclosure relating to the status of production at its 100% owned Woxna graphite mine and processing plant in Sweden Woxna.

The Woxna project has not defined a mineral reserve and the previous preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on Woxna dated October 29, 2013, was superseded by the Company’s current mineral resource technical report dated May 11, 2015. As the Woxna facility is not in production but remains on a production ready status, any future decision to recommence mining at Woxna will not be based on a preliminary economic assessment demonstrating the potential viability of mineral resources or feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability. As a result, there is increased uncertainty and risk of economic and technical failure associated with such production decisions. These risks, among others, include areas that would be analyzed in more detail in a preliminary economic assessment or feasibility study, such as applying economic analysis to resources or reserves and more detailed metallurgy. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, socio-political, marketing or other relevant issues.

While the Company has not demonstrated the economic viability or technical feasibility of the Woxna operation by the completion of a mining study, should prices for spherical graphite increase, or should the Company be able to produce a higher quality product that can demand a higher price, management believes, with a fully permitted and operational mine and concentrator, Flinders will be able to produce graphite concentrate stock to feed into a commercial purification flow sheet.

The qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 for the Woxna project, Blair Way, President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of the Company, and a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, has reviewed and verified the contents of this release.

 

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LOMIKO TSXV: LMR TO DRILL HIGH GRADE FLAKE GRAPHITE ZONE WHICH HAS


INTERCEPTS OF 28.5 M OF 16.53% CG AND 33.3 M OF 14.62% CG

Vancouver, British-Columbia – April 11, 2016 - Lomiko Metals Inc. (“Lomiko”) (TSX-V: LMR, OTC:

LMRMF, FSE: DH8B) and Canada Strategic Metals Inc. (“Canada Strategic Metals”) (TSX.V: CJC; FSE:

YXEN; OTC-BB: CJCFF) announced March 24, 2016 the filing of a technical report prepared in

compliance with NI 43-101 was filed for the La Loutre Flake Graphite Property of 18.4 M Tonnes of

3.19% Indicated and 16.7 M Tonnes at 3.75% Flake Graphite Inferred with a cut-off of 1.5%.

The Resource did not include high grade intercepts of 28.5 Metres of 16.53% Cg and 21.5 Metres of

11.53% Cg reported January 6, 2016 and 9% over 90.75 metres reported September 24th 2015 from the

Refractory Zone.

“The Graphene-Battery Zone has delivered excellent results but the La Loutre has much more to offer at

the Refractory Zone,” stated A. Paul Gill, CEO of Lomiko, “We need to drill the Refractory Zone to a

resource level to confirm the full potential of the property. Further, Lomiko will complete metallurgy and

graphite characterization studies in relation to a preliminary assessment of the best market for the graphite

from the property.”

 

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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.