Lamboo’s Geumam (South Korea) flake graphite was successfully independently tested in a lithium ion battery cell by Very Small Particle Co (VSPC), a leading Australian lithium ion battery R&D specialist laboratory. Conductivity and performance tests undertaken by VSPC over the past nine months demonstrated the Geumam product’s equivalence to synthetic graphite material. VSPC concluded that the results suggest a commercially attractive negative electrode product could be developed from the Geumam natural flake graphite.

Lamboo’s focus is upon high-end and technological applications of its high-purity and high-grade natural flake graphite material, including use in lithium ion batteries, super capacitors, pebble bed technology applications and graphene.

Lamboo Resources CEO, Richard Trevillion: “The most exciting aspect of the trial was the fact that our basic Geumam natural flake graphite demonstrated near preliminary equivalence with standard materials used today, in terms of conductivity, stability and performance.”

Trevillion noted that high-quality synthetic graphite currently the main anode material for lithium ion batteries, sells for a large multiple of the benchmark price for standard natural flake graphite.

“Based on VSPC’s analysis, we are hopeful that Lamboo could produce a high-quality natural flake graphite product as a cost-effective substitute for synthetic graphite for use in the burgeoning lithium ion battery market and other high-end applications.”

Further validation work will be conducted, including trials to measure the performance of Geumam and eventually, McIntosh natural flake graphite in new generation fuel cells and super capacitors.

The Geumam graphite project is located 67 km southwest of Seoul on the western coastal peninsula of South Korea. Geumam is situated about 4 km north of Dangjin City (population 137,000).

Geumam was an historical graphite mining operation from 1985-1992. The Geumam project has potentially significant areas of flake graphite mapped in outcrop at areas A, B, C, D, E, and G. A small mining operation and flotation processing plant was established at Geumam in 1986, consisting of a run-of-mine stockpile, conveyor, feed hopper, ball mill, two flotation cells (rougher and cleaner cells), and a regrind ball mill. The plant was capable of producing 6 t/d fine flake graphite flotation concentrate (>85% Cg), which it sold to export markets in Japan and Europe.

The mill was subsequently upgraded with an alkaline-leach plant to produce high-grade fine flake graphite concentrate (93-97% Cg) in July 1987 (KMPC, 1988), which it sold to domestic markets for micronizing into superfine graphite powders. The mine ceased operations in about 1992.

The project is located in a rural setting surrounded by world class infrastructure, including the major Ports of Dangjin and Pyeongtaek, the largest cluster of domestic steel mills (Hyundai Steel, Dongbu Steel, and Dongkuk Steel), the Dangjin power station (2,400 MW capacity) and numerous other industries, including pharmaceuticals and refractories.

Dangjin City and surrounding Chungnam Province lie within the designated ‘Yellow Sea Free Economic Zone’, a business-orientated region that is actively seeking and attracting investors and industries, including foreign-owned enterprises. A potential graphite mineral processing plant would be ideally suited to, and is compatible with, the industries planned and designated for the Seongmum or Hapdeok Industrial Complexes, currently under industrial estate development.

Lamboo Resources Limited subsidiary Won Kwang Mines holds five  granted Mining Rights over Geumam (Registered No’s 80077/Dangjin 55-3; 80014/Dangjin 65-1, 78355/Dangjin 65-2, 200268/Dangjin 54-2 & 200269/Dangjin 55-4). These granted Mining Rights cover a total area of 403ha. Additional applications for two Mining Rights are currently being processed by the Central Mining Registry office of MOTIE.