Graphite, which evokes images of pencils, golf clubs and tennis rackets, is becoming the darling of the investment community. Natural graphite deposits can generally be characterized as one of three types: crystalline or flake, amorphous, and lump graphite. Due to its amazing chemical and physical properties, graphite, distant cousin to a diamond, is finding new uses across a wide range of industries. It's ironic that in our rush to decrease our carbon footprint, we're turning more and more to carbon products. For example, the lithium-ion battery is one of the fastest-growing uses of graphite, with each battery containing greater than 10 times more graphite than lithium. These batteries are already widely utilized in the consumer electronics industry in mobile phones, computers and digital cameras, as well as for power tools. Mackie Research stated "Over the near to mid-term, we expect growth in the refractory market to accelerate to compliment a continuation of strong trends in the lithium ion battery market, where approximate growth is running at 25 - 30% per year." According to the United States Geological Survey, fuel cells have the potential to consume as much graphite as all other uses combined. Graphite is also projected to be a key component in next-generation pebble bed nuclear reactors, which are fuelled by tennis-ball-sized graphite spheres with uranium embedded in them. China is now building the first two commercial units, with plans to have 30 by 2020. University of West Virginia researchers say these reactors could use the world's entire output of flake graphite. The dominance of China as a producer with 73% of the market, coupled with measures introduced by the Chinese government to limit exports, has created a supply concern for the rest of the world. Both the European Union and the United States have already put graphite on their critical mineral lists. A supply squeeze is now being felt, depicted in the new prices of flake graphite which have risen dramatically over the last year. Byron Capital Markets expects continued pressure on pricing from customers as they look for supply outside of China. Byron expects to see annual graphite demand increase from 1.1 million tones to about 2.6 million tones by 2020. Even if the lithium-ion predictions don't pan out, Byron still sees demand steadily rising to 1.5 million tones by 2020. Because most of the graphite mines being developed worldwide are small flake and amorphous in nature, large flake graphite will encounter the greatest demand. And with demand for graphite growing in double digits and prices reaching $2,500 to $3,000 per ton, the future for graphite companies with actual projects is excellent. Click here to InvestmentPitch.com's educational video discussing the supply, demand, and many uses of graphite. If this link is not enabled, please visit www.InvestmentPitch.com and enter "graphite supply" in the search box. InvestmentPitch.com is a multimedia company that provides a combined solution for creating and hosting financial video content, and distributing it across multiple platforms to investors and financial professionals. InvestmentPitch.com specializes in producing short three minute videos based on news releases and research reports. InvestmentPitch is currently raising $500,000 from the sale of 5 million units at $0.10, by way of an offering memorandum. For more information email bmorgan@investmentpitch.com. Quelle: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/03/...+03-May-2012+HUG20120503 Beste Aussichten für die Zukunft! |
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