A Technical Analysis on TLG, page-765

In today's Bull newsletter under (only some of the stocks mentioned) I hold all three.
Can Graphite Miners Make a Comeback?


The Talga Resources (TLG) website wisely reminds investors there is ten times more graphite than lithium in a Li Ion battery, which potentially bodes well for the company’s five graphite projects in Sweden. However, the company – once called Talga Gold – has ambitious plans underway to utilise its graphite assets as feedstock for graphene, a material dubbed a supermaterial for its conductivity, strength, and light weight. Graphene is stronger than steel and a better conductor of electricity than copper. Talga has shed its gold and iron oreassets to concentrate on graphene production.

Talga has a unique mining process that essentially cuts graphite blocks from the earth, eliminating the traditional cost of crushing or grinding. The company’s mining process is patent-pending, and ideally suited for the high-grade resources found in northern Sweden. The company expects to begin shipping 46,000 tons a year of graphite and 1000 tons of graphene starting in 2018. Graphene is one of several materials poised to improve Li-Ion batteries, with Samsung Electronics already employing a “graphene ball.”

First Graphene (FGR) changed its name from First Graphite to reflect its focus on developing graphene for industrial applications. The company has five graphite prospects in Sri Lanka, a country with low sovereign risk, to provide feedstock for its graphene production. The Sri Lanka mines will extract graphite from veins, the purest form of graphite. The company has an impressive list of three Australian Universities working together on developing graphene for industrial applications. However, the graphite mining operation is still in the early exploration stage.

Although it is not a miner, another company bears mentioning. Hazer Group Limited (HZR) is a technology development company looking to commercialise its Hazer Process, used to produce hydrogen and graphite at low cost. The process uses inexpensive iron ore and natural gas to produce hydrogen and synthetic graphite. Synthetic graphite accounts for just 30% of battery anodes, due to its higher cost despite its greater purity. Should Hazer be able to successfully produce synthetic graphite at or near the cost of natural spherical graphite, it could make inroads into the current dominance of natural spherical graphite.