Engineering & Mining Journal

MAY 2017

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56 E&MJ; • MAY 2017 www.e-mj.com MARKETS The global lithium ion battery (LIB) mar- ket is expected to grow six fold over the next 10 years, creating unprecedented opportunities for graphite developers. Ad- dressing the Paydirt Australian Graphite Conference in Perth during April, only the second time the sector's key forum has been held, the ASX listed Battery Miner- als' Executive Chairman David Flanagan, said the scope of the LIB market opportu- nity should not be under-estimated. "This market was worth around $1 billion last calendar year and industry experts are putting a total value on it by 2027 of around $60 billion," Flana- gan said. "Of this total sector, at least half of that value or some $30 billion, will come from the actual materials market required to provide componentry for the batteries. "These growth trends will also evolve at a time when the renewable energy battery storage market will rapidly revolu- tionize the energy sector, and with that, the opportunities for commercial and do- mestic battery technologies to be central to that growth." His comments come as Battery Miner- als readies itself to extract a 2,000-met- ric-ton bulk sample from its graphite projects in Mozambique in East Africa for process test work. This consignment is destined for the company's planned Stage 1 graphite "spheronizing" plant to be installed and commissioned in Nevada in the United States in the second half of this year. Spherical graphite is a preferred com- ponent for the anode in LIBs. The batter- ies actually consume more graphite than they do lithium. Lithium hydroxide is the raw material that serves as the cathode. Graphite is used for the anode. Estimates vary, but each LIB has approximately 1.5 to 2 times graphite than lithium. And it takes 2 tons of graphite to produce 1 ton of spherical graphite. Technically, it's 4:1 graphite to lithium on the LIBs. Battery Minerals then plans to ramp up commercial operations to have a 250,000 to 300,000 metric tons per year (mt/y) mining and processing operation across Mozambique and Nevada to produce 20,000 mt/y of fl ake graphite concentrate and up to 10,000 mt/y of spherical graph- ite. Capital costs are estimated at $57 million to $67 million and the company has estimated operating expenses at $450/mt-500/mt. Global Lithium Ion Battery Market to Explode Over the Next Decade Gold and silver prices provided by KITCO Bullion dealers (http://www.kitco.com). Platinum group metals prices provided by Johnson Matthey (http://www.platinum.matthey.com). Non-ferrous base and minor metal prices provided by London Metal Exchange (http://www.lme.co.uk). Iron ore prices provided by Platts Iron Ore Index. Currency exchange rates were provided by www.xe.com. (April 28, 2017) Precious Metals ($/oz) Base Metals ($/mt) Minor Metals ($/mt) Exchange Rates (U.S.$ Equivalent) Gold $1,267.70 Aluminum $1,930.00 Molybdenum $15,250 Euro (€) 1.090 Silver $17.16 Copper $5,688.50 Cobalt $55,250 U.K. (£) 1.290 Platinum $948.00 Lead $2,280.00 Canada ($) 0.731 Palladium $828.00 Nickel $9,485.00 Iron Ore ($/dmt) Australia ($) 0.753 Rhodium $1,015.00 Tin $19,850.00 Fe CFR North China South Africa (Rand) 0.075 Ruthenium $65.00 Zinc $2,639.00 $68.00 China (¥) 0.145

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