Graphene revolution puts a spotlight on graphite projects.
On July 20, Black Rock Mining announced it would assay a potential new graphite field at Mahenge adjacent to Kibaran's Epanko project in Tanzania. Natural graphite and its relatively recently discovered highly-conductive and super-strong derivative graphene are among the most important raw materials in modern industry, used in a range of products from lithium-ion batteries to lubricants. The unveiling of the first commercially viable graphene product, the dimmable light-emitting diode, brought renewed attention to the long marginalised graphite mining industry, currently dominated by China, and set off a scramble to find new sources.
Successful tests for super-tensility are leading to graphene's adoption in military uses.
Graphene is credited with radical reduction of charging times for futuristic 400-mile range Roadster car batteries.
Fragility and the difficulty of making multilayer graphene will slow its replacement of copper in conductivity applications.
