IM Graphite News In Brief August

　　Kibaran seals Epanko offtakewith ThyssenKrupp; DNI signs LOI with Toronto graphite processing facility.

　　Australiangraphiteexplorer Kibaran ResourcesLtd has signed an offtake agreement with Germany’s ThyssenKrupp MetallurgicalProducts for 20,000 tpa graphite from its Epanko graphite project in Tanzania.

　　The deal, which covers a10-year period with a five year extension option, corresponds to around 50% ofthe planned annual output from Epanko. Kibaran expects to begin production atthe project in 2017.

　　Kai-Norman Knotsch, chairmanof ThyssenKrupp’s board, said that securing the graphite supply from Epankowould enable the company to expand its activity in the refractory productbusiness in Europe, Russia and Korea.

　　ASX and Frankfurt-listedKibaran already holds a mining licence for Epanko, which has a JORC mineralresource estimate of 23.3m tonnes graphite at an average grade of 9.4% total graphiticcarbon (TGC).

　　ASX-listed Magnis ResourcesLtd has received an environmental certificate for its Nachu graphite project,also in Tanzania, from the country’s National Environment Management Council.

　　The certificate was issuedfollowing the submission of an environmental impact assessment on Nachu by thecompany’s consultants, MTL Consulting and Digby Wells Environmental.

　　"Now that theenvironmental certificate has been issued, we expect that the mining licencewill be approved in the near future," said Magnis’ chairman, FrankPoullas.

　　TSX-V-listed DNI Metals Inc.has signed a non-binding letter of intent to purchase a company that it sayswill vertically integrate its developing graphite business.

　　DNI did not name the targetedacquisition, but said that more than 62 Canadian and US patents andtechnologies had been developed by the company in question and that ownershipof many of these will be transferred to DNI on completion of the purchase.

　　It added that 87% of theundisclosed acquisition value of between $3-5m consists of a 37,000 square foot(3,437 square metre) facility in the Greater Toronto Area, including equipmentneeded to operate pilot plants and laboratories for metallurgy and othertesting of graphite.

　　DNI, which is developinggraphite assets in Madagascar and Brazil, said it expects to disclose the nameof the company it intends to acquire within the next 90 days, subject to thecompletion of satisfactory due diligence.

　　In Australia, ValenceIndustries Ltd has identified further high grade graphite mineralisation alonga strike extension at its Uley project near Port Lincoln in South Australia.

　　According to the company, thelatest drilling campaign, which focused on the property’s Pit 2, returned drillcores of near surface graphite with grades ranging from 10% C to 45.4% C.

　　Valence, which is alreadyprocessing and selling graphite from historical mine tailings at Uley, saidthat the results will allow it to progress with life of mine studies at Pit 2.

　　In financial news,TSX-V-listed Graphite One Resources Inc. intends to raise gross proceeds ofCanadian dollar (C$) 500,000 ($376,000*) through a non-brokered privateplacement of 6.25m units at a price of C$0.08/unit.

　　Each unit consists of onecommon share and one transferable common share purchase warrant, entitling theholder to purchase one common share at a price of C$0.10/share for a period ofthree years from the closing date of the placement – expected on or around theend of August 2015.

　　Graphite One will use the netproceeds of the offering, which may be subject to finders fees, to fund furtherexploration and development of the company’s Graphite Creek project in Alaska,US.

　　Ingraphenenews, Vancouver-headquarteredLomiko Metals Inc. has revealed that its acquisition of US-based graphenepatent holder and retailer Graphene Laboratories Inc. has brought the Canadianexploration company 8,000 customers and more than $1m in revenue.

　　"New developments ingraphene are increasing at a tremendous rate," said Lomiko’s CEO, PaulGill. "Having a strategic partnership with, and being a significantshareholder in Graphene 3D Lab, allows Lomiko a unique insight into thisindustry."

　　According to Lomiko, Graphene3D Lab Inc., which recentlyacquiredGraphene Laboratories, whichspecialises in graphene inks for 3D printing, numbers several Fortune 500companies among its clients, including NASA, Ford Motor Co., General Electric,Apple, Samsung, IBM and Harvard and Stanford Universities.

　　The New Jersey-based businessholds a provisional patent relating to the manufacture and processing ofgraphene and has begun planning a two-phase development programme to advancethis process from bench-top prototype to a large-scale manufacturing operation.

　　The Quantum Detection Groupbased at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory has concluded that thehydrophobicity (water repellence) of graphene is strongly dependent upon its thickness.

　　According to the researchers,single layer graphene is considerably more hydrophilic (absorbent or soluble inwater) than graphene consisting of a number of carbon layers. The findings werebased on the results of experiments using chemical force microscopy andnanoscale mapping of friction forces.

　　The discovery could haveimportant implications for the development of future applications for graphene,which has been touted as a game changing additive for coatings in electronicsand medical equipment, where hydrophobicity is a necessary characteristic.

　　Finally, a team of scientistsat James Cook University in Queensland, Australia, have discovered thatgraphene can be manufactured from the tea tree plant, Melaleuca Alternifolia,which is also used to produce essential oils for medicine.

　　According to local mediareports, the James Cook scientists collaborated with researchers from otherinstitutions in Australia, Singapore, Japan and the US to conduct the study,which employed a plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (CVD) technique tomanufacture near-pristine graphene film.

　　"This research realisesfabrication of good quality, few-layer graphene from an environmentallyfriendly precursor," the study’s lead author, Mohan Jacob, told the sciencewebsite Phys.org. "Overall, large area graphene fabrication using a fast(…) process at a relatively low fabrication temperature is the majorsignificance of this work."

　　*Conversion made August 2015