Graphite
In the past few years, juniors have rushed into the graphite space in part due to concerns about China’s dominance of the sector. But will China’s supremacy end soon? Graphite Investing News talked to Simon Moores, data manager at Industrial Minerals, to find out.
Prices for flake graphite have stabilized in the past few months, but currently it seems unlikely that demand from the key steel sector will increase in 2013.
The US is still many years from producing graphite domestically, but fears are rising about China’s dominance.
Miracle material graphene has no band gap, meaning it cannot stop conducting electricity and thus is not as useful as it could be in making transistors. Researchers are trying to change that.
Graphene could be used as a photocatalyst to create artificial photosynthesis systems that produce renewable, non-polluting fuels and chemicals.
Shares of many graphite juniors have headed lower in the past few months as critical mineral prices have weakened for the first time in three years. Juniors and their projects are very sensitive to graphite prices, an expert says.
Graphite prices recovered slightly in June and July, but the sentiment in the market is that prices for all grades are softening.
MIT researchers may have found a way to desalinate sea water using graphene.
Exploration for graphite is heating up in Australia. While Australian juniors are still in the initial stages, way behind their Canadian counterparts, the move toward exploration shows that there are concerns about future supply and demand, and that the quest for non-Chinese sources of this critical mineral is expanding.
Flake graphite prices fell last month for the first time in more than three years on slowing demand from China and Europe. Concerns that China, could slap quotas on graphite are propelling western countries to find non-Chinese sources of graphite.
