Modern Mining May 2022

before year-end

and purities in concentrate, only the finer flakes (<150 microns) are traditionally used in the manufac turing of the anode material in the lithium-ion battery supply chain. Given the high demand for small to medium size flakes, what does this mean for the Walkabout Resources Lindi Jumbo graphite project in Tanzania, which predominantly produces jumbo graphite flakes? “The larger the flake at a certain grade, the higher the sales price and we have noted a growing demand for larger flake sizes of 180 to 500 microns (large to Super Jumbo flake). The Lindi Jumbo proj ect is highly skewed towards larger flake sizes in final concentrate, but a quarter of our proposed pro duction is in the small size flake category and we will be producing between 10 000 t and 12 000 t of smaller flake per annum,” says Cunningham. Global production of graphite was estimated at one million tonnes last year and despite the mas sive investments being made in the development of mega factories for energy storage and EVs, there is currently limited investment outlay for development of new graphite mines and new projects. “This is due largely to the uncertainty surround ing the graphite market as investors do not have a clear understanding of the commodity and its pric ing, given the opaqueness of the market. Although to some extent a graphite spot price does exist, greater understanding of the market is needed by the investment community and will go a long way in unlocking investment in the development of new mines,” he says. According to Cunningham, as a result of con tinued supply chain challenges and shortage of

“Although industry pundits had forecast graphite growth of 6% per annum, the demand predicted in 2019 for the current year has soared significantly beyond the prediction made three years ago. In fact, graphite flake prices over the past six months alone have increased by up to 40%, with smaller graphite flakes selling at $500/t (containing 94% carbon) late last year now trading above $800/t.”

“Although industry pundits had forecast graphite growth of 6% per annum, the demand predicted in 2019 for the current year has soared significantly beyond the prediction made three years ago. In fact, graphite flake prices over the past six months alone have increased by up to 40%, with smaller graphite flakes selling at $500/t (containing 94% carbon) late last year now trading above $800/t.” While there are a variety of graphite flake sizes

Original founders of the Lindi Jumbo project – Andrew Cunningham, Allan Mulligan (middle) and Rikard Taljaard.

May 2022  MODERN MINING  23