What is graphite?
Graphite is a crystalline form of pure carbon which occurs naturally in the earths crust. When carbon rich sediments are buried under kilometers of rock over time the heat and pressure, causes the carbon atoms to arrange into a crystal form we call the mineral graphite (under extreme pressures and temperatures under hundreds of kilometers of rock, carbon atoms take the form of diamond). Graphite generally occurs as microcrystalline flakes or masses within a host rock. Graphite is chemically inert and non-toxic.
Why graphite?
The steel making and metallurgical industries are presently the largest consumers of graphite. Emerging energy storage technologies for large-scale fuel cells and batteries as well as high-strength lightweight building materials and other applications forecast rapid growth in world demand for graphite. Graphite is considered a strategic mineral due to its vital applications in the aerospace and energy storage industries. Becoming an important supplier to this is the market is the opportunity that Global Lion is striving towards.
Graphite Mines
Like other mineral commodity deposits, the economics of graphite deposits is dependent up such criteria its location, cost of transportation to market, along with deposit grade, size and particular mining characteristics. Of the three categories of graphite deposits mined around the world (1. Amorphous Micro-Crystalline 2. Flake 3. Lump), Global Lion is focused on large Flake graphite deposits.
Madagascar and China are believed to have the largest resources of high-grade crystalline flake graphite. Our flag ship Madagascar projects consist of large flake graphite mineral deposits which have the added bonus of having being extensively weathered over time, given the climate of its location in the world. Extensive weathering can greatly reduce the cost of mining and separating the graphite from its host rock.