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Sovereign Metals produces ultra-high ‘5-Nines’ purity graphite from Malawi project

Last updated: 13:25 19 Jul 2018 AEST, First published: 23:25 18 Jul 2018 AEST

raised fist shaded with colours of Malawi flag
The Malingunde Graphite Project is in Malawi

Sovereign Metals Ltd (ASX:SVM) has produced some of the highest purity graphite in the world, using a loss on ignition process to assess the suitability of mine gate graphite concentrates from its Malingunde project in Malawi.

The achieved purity highlights the potential for Sovereign to enter the lithium-ion battery sector as well as high-tech and speciality markets, including the nuclear sector.

Sovereign is undertaking further test work to demonstrate the suitability of Malingunde concentrates for a range of end-user applications.

Shares in Sovereign were up 4.35% in intra-day trading.

 

Managing director Julian Stephens said: “Achieving 5-Nines purity in a simple and cost-efficient manner is a very important milestone in enabling entry into the emerging lithium-ion battery sector and other value-add markets.

“Entry to emerging markets, combined with sales to high-volume, high-value, traditional markets such as refractories, foundries and other industrial applications, provides Sovereign with unique product marketing optionality.

“It also provides the potential to sell Malingunde concentrates to a wide range of customers.

 

Graphite market sectors and Malingunde product types

READ: Sovereign Metals upgrades saprolite-hosted graphite resource in Malawi

The test work was undertaken using a proprietary low temperature thermal purification process, which reduced the required energy input and minimised the carbon dioxide footprint compared to other thermal technologies.

Low temperature refers to a process that runs at less than 2,100 degrees Celsius and is facilitated with very mild addition of chlorine gas.

Most thermal purification processes in the graphite industry are performed at temperatures of 2,700-3000 degrees, which requires high energy input, adds significant costs and generates a notably higher carbon dioxide footprint.

Product exceeds industry standards

After purification, the impurity concentration in the product was reduced to less than 5ppm.

The generally accepted maximum impurity concentration for advanced batteries is 490ppm total and 170ppm for the sum of critical element concentration.

The Malingunde purified graphite also surpasses the 2ppm maximum boron concentration and 99.995% graphite thresholds, which are defined as nuclear-grade graphite purity standards by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM).

Next steps

Sovereign will next focus on milling and classification of the purified flake into spheronised graphite products for lithium-ion battery anodes and other high-end electrical and electrochemical applications.

This will be followed by electrochemical cell testing to examine the purified, spheronised material’s performance.

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