Resumen de Year in Review 2013: Graphite and graphene
Sri Lanka's trade ministry approached the Chinese government for investment in its mining and mineral processing sectors, with particular emphasis on mineral sands and graphite. Rishad Bathiudeen, Sri Lanka's Minister for trade and commerce, was quoted as telling China's envoy to Colombo, Wu Jianghao, during a visit to the island in March that "Sri Lanka wants to upgrade its mineral sector," and that it was looking to Asia's biggest economy to back its development initiatives.
One of Canada's leading graphite exploration companies, Mason Graphite Inc, joined only a handful of juniors in publishing production and cost details of its Lac Guret project in north Quebec. Using IM's graphite prices as the basis for its preliminary economic assessment (PEA), Mason expects to produce a tonne of flake graphite concentrate for $390/tonne which, if realised, puts it in line with the higher-cost Chinese producers.
Swiss graphite producer Timcal SA, part of Imerys, has confirmed that it is "seriously considering" graphene as a market for its graphite products" Graphene production is one potential route for natural graphite, as well as synthetic carbon, and this is interesting to us," Dr Sergio Pacheco Benito, development scientist for Timcal, told IM at the ImagineNano Graphene 2013 meeting in Bilbao.
