Even though graphite companies have been ever increasing blips on investors' radar screens over the past couple of years, the space got a massive visibility and validation boost when the already iconic Tesla Motors announced its planned lithium ion battery gigafactory to be completed by 2017 to support the demand for its new Tesla Model S. It's partnering with Panasonic and initiatives by rival behemoths such as Samsung and others will undoubtedly add to the interest both for graphite and tech derivative graphene.
Without reciting readily available facts, the bottom line is that Tesla is projected to use 30k tons of battery grade spherical graphite derived from 102k tons of feedstock. At the moment, only 80k tons of the high-grade natural flake mineral necessary is being produced annually. And given that the cost per ton of synthetic graphite is roughly double that of natural flake, the future growth may well belong to the latter as more mines come on-stream.
"Investors need to understand that the impressive growth will ultimately come from graphite/graphene technology applications such as 3D printing, " stated A. Paul Gill, CEO of Lomiko Metals (TSX-V:LMR) (OTCQX:LMRMF) (FRANKFURT:DH8B). "Lomiko not only has first class mineral properties, but also intends to be an incubator of graphene technologies. The recent successful market debut of Graphene 3D Labs, of which LMR owns 11.23% or 4.4 million shares, has been a solid proof of concept that our aggressive plans to seek out the best opportunities deliver exceptional shareholder value."
Considering there are more than 11,000 plus patents or patents pending for graphene technologies, the story just gets more compelling. Large companies such as General Electric and Lockheed-Martin and have also confirmed their interest in utilizing graphene technologies.
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