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Graphite demand highest from lithium-ion battery producers

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21% of the world’s graphite, a critical mineral, is found in Africa. This is according to a Bizcommunity.com article, 1 Jan 2024, titled, ‘Gold Rush for green: Africa poised to seize opportunity for clean technology leadership.’ The article also reports that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said that by 2040, the world’s demand for graphite could be 20 to 25 times higher than what it is now.

The greatest demand for graphite now comes from lithium-ion battery producers, used in electric vehicles (EVs) and other renewable energy storage. While they’re called lithium-ion batteries, there is ten to fifteen times more graphite in these batteries than lithium.

The second highest demand comes from metal processing since graphite electrodes are an essential component in the production of steel.  Graphite is an ideal material for use in the production of materials with very high melting points since, even at very high temperatures, it expands very little.

Graphite is also a light material with a wide range of modern applications. Graphite is used in nuclear reactor cores, for example. Originally, graphite was used to cast cannonballs and eventually gave rise to one of the most well-known graphite applications–the pencil.

Since 2022, the demand for graphite for lithium-ion batteries in electrical vehicle manufacture has overtaken the traditional demand from the metal processing sector.  It’s the ever-increasing demand for EVs that has had the greatest impact on the demand side for graphite.

While more synthetic graphite is sold than mined natural graphite, analysts predict  natural graphite will be in higher demand than synthetic by 2025.  A downside of synthetic graphite is that it’s produced using petroleum by-products and instability in oil markets has increased the production costs of synthetic graphite.

Up to now, graphite has been extensively mined in China, Brazil, India, North Korea and Canada.  

Green Africa Minerals is 100% owner of four graphite prospecting licenses (PLs) in Tanzania, an area of over 142 km2. Our active Mogoro Graphite Project prospecting licenses (PLs) lie 25km from Morogoro town and are connected to the capital Dar es Salaam by a 240km long sealed highway.  Tanzania is a stable country that was recently named one of the best destinations for mining investment.