The black parade: : Graphite companies continue to put on a show

• Autores: Laura Syrett
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 578, 2015 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Diciembre)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • "Investors want the next Apple or Google and that isn't going to happen in graphite," says Stephen Riddle, CEO of privately-owned US-based graphite materials company, Asbury Graphite Mills. Riddle is a long-standing critic of efforts to shackle graphite investment to stock markets. "I don't really believe that graphite mining is an industry the public belongs in. Once they realise there isn't going to be the next Google in graphite, investors will lose interest and I believe the juniors are just starting to comprehend this." Riddle admits that his caustic brand of what many class as unwarranted scepticism, but which he insists is merely hard line realism, has caused many publicly listed graphite juniors to stop listening.

    "I'm confused why the industry should be labelled unsuitable for retail investors," he says. "It's a worldwide needed commodity." He concedes that the lack of spot prices for graphite make the sector "a little opaque", but denies that it has fuelled misinformed investments. "Some people invest on a short-term basis while others go in for the longer-term," he said, explaining the investors regard shares in graphite companies as they would any other listed entity - as opportunities with a certain amount of risk.

    As IM 's "Natural Graphite Report" notes, the amount of graphite pebble bed reactors will actually consume is still theoretical at present. There will be initial start-up tonnages of graphite required to charge the nuclear plants with enough pebbles/fuel and this fuel will continuously be replenished with graphite, silicon carbide and uranium. Estimates have ranged from 2,000 to 3,000 tonnes of total graphite for every 440MW plant, equating to 1,400-2,100 tonnes of natural graphite, however this sector remains a distant beacon for the natural graphite industry at present.