Marketwired

Great Lakes Graphite and Partners Manufacture High Purity Graphite Products to Prepare for the Battery Market

Marketwired

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jul 18, 2017) - Great Lakes Graphite Inc. ("GLK" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:GLK)(OTC PINK:GLKIF)(8GL.F) today announces that working in conjunction with partners Shamokin Carbons and Ashland Advanced Materials, the Company has manufactured a quantity of several high purity flake graphite products. This development is one of many necessary steps required to qualify as a supplier of high quality, high purity graphite products for use in battery anodes and other components for the electric car battery and stationary energy storage markets.

Highlights

  • Over two hundred and fifty pounds of various graphite products were manufactured in commercial scale facilities, which currently process commercial quantities of synthetic graphite.

  • Results support the ability to consistently achieve high and ultra high purity levels.

  • Larger quantities demonstrate the Company's ability to exceed bench scale manufacturing of high purity graphite products.

A total of over two hundred and fifty (250) pounds of material were processed in commercial scale micronization and purification facilities owned and operated by partners of Great Lakes Graphite that currently process commercial quantities of synthetic graphite. The manufactured flake graphite products include high purity micronized graphite, ultra high purity micronized graphite products and ultra high purity spheronized graphite.

Results from analytical tests performed on the processed materials support that the method and techniques being used are able to consistently achieving purity levels exceeding 99.9% carbon (high purity) and 99.99% (ultra high purity). The commercial purification furnaces at the Ashland Advanced Materials facility located in Niagara Falls, New York are operated at extremely high temperatures, up to 3,000 degrees centigrade, in order to achieve the high purification levels. Extremely high and consistent purity levels are required for material that is destined for the battery industry in order to maximize product performance.

GDMS Analysis of Great Lakes Graphite Ultra High Purity Spheronized Graphite

The table below shows a partial list of elements from the results of the GDMS analysis performed on a sample of ultra high purity spheronized graphite.

Trace Mineral Impurities / Key Elements

Concentration Parts Per Million ("PPM") Wt %

Al (Aluminum)

0.25

Ca (Calcium)

<0.50

Co (Cobalt)

<0.05

Cr (Chromium)

<0.50

Cu (Copper)

<0.10

Fe (Iron)

0.27

Mo (Molybdenum)

1.80

Ni (Nickel)

<0.409

Pb (Lead)

<0.10

Sb (Antimony)

<0.10

Si (Silicon)

34.00

V (Vanadium)

0.15

S (Sulfur)

1.40

Zn (Zinc)

<0.10

Great Lakes Graphite Chief Executive Officer Paul Gorman said, "Larger quantities demonstrate the Company's ability to exceed bench scale manufacturing of high purity graphite products. We have been working with our partners to methodically assemble the elements required to deliver into customer supply chains at the scale required to be a viable supply alternative for customers. Bench scale capabilities enable the manufacture of products in quantities required for product qualification testing, but do not in themselves create the capability to feed supply chains in commercial quantities."

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