About Graphite

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  • Company Presentation

About Graphite

The Graphite Opportunity

Graphite is a natural form of carbon and has a number of outstanding chemical and physical characteristics, including:
  • It is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity — as conductive as copper with 1/8th the density
  • It has a high melting point of 3,650°C, which makes it valuable for industries, such as the steel industry, that operate in extreme conditions
  • It is extremely resistant to strong acids; it is chemically inert and highly refractive
  • It is thermal shock-resistant
  • It has outstanding lubrication properties
  • It has a low absorption coefficient for X-rays and electrons
This broad range of qualities makes graphite well-suited to a wide variety of applications across numerous industries.

Graphite deposits of commercial interest in Canada occur principally in rocks of the Grenville series found in Eastern Canada. Fine to coarse flake graphite deposits are located mainly in Ontario and Quebec, but rarely in such concentrated quantities as are found at the Kearney Mine.

Natural graphite exists in three forms. In descending order of commercial value these forms are:
  • Flake
  • Amorphous
  • Vein/lump
The graphite found at the Kearney Mine is large flake graphite — some of the most valuable graphite in the world.

Since 2008, consumption of flake graphite accounted for at least 50% of consumption in mature industrialized economies, but only 40% of worldwide production. As more and more economies require flake graphite, demand will increase significantly.

Flake graphite is made up of layers of graphene, which is the minerals’ base structural element. Ontario Graphite will be able to extract graphene for development of solar cells, transparent conducting electrodes, integrated circuits, rechargeable batteries and ultracapacitors.

There is currently no natural graphite production in the United States and only 12,000 tonnes per year being produced at the two existing facilities in Canada. Ontario Graphite anticipates that, at peak capacity, the Kearney Mine will produce 20,000 tonnes each year of high quality large flake graphite, which will make the Mine the largest producer of graphite in North America.

Production costs at the Kearney Mine will be competitive with other manufacturers around the world, giving North America a major new source of affordable, local, high-quality graphite. This not only provides an economic opportunity for us, but also an opportunity for economic development and job creation in Kearney and the surrounding area.