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Graphite One Resources Inc. (TSXV:GPH,OTCQX:GPHOF) Advisory Board Member Dan McGroarty spoke to CBS’ “60 Minutes” segment entitled: “Modern Life’s Devices Under China’s Grip,” highlighting foreign dependency on elements essential to green technologies, high technologies and advanced weapons systems. According to CEO Anthony Huston, “While 60 Minutes focused on rare earths for which the United States is more than 90% dependent on Chinese supply, concerns about resource dependency apply equally to natural graphite.”
Natural flake graphite is also included in the list of “shortfall materials” in the US House and Senate Armed Services Committees’ recently released report, “Strategic and Critical Materials 2015 Report on Stockpile Requirements.”
According to Mr. Huston, “We see it from the Pentagon, the U.S. Congress and in the mainstream media,” noted Anthony Huston. “Critical materials supply is increasingly essential to economic development, energy independence and national security. Our Graphite Creek Project in Alaska has the potential to be a significant supplier of high quality, large flake graphite at a time when technology is driving increasing demand – and has established natural graphite as a critical and strategic mineral.”
Graphite One Resources Inc. (GPH: TSX-V, GPHOF: OTCQX) (“Graphite One” or the “Company”) is progressing from the exploration to the evaluation phase with its Graphite Creek Project near Nome, Alaska. This deposit is the largest known large flake graphite deposit in the United States and calls attention to recent developments that underscore the importance of critical materials and natural flake graphite in particular.
On March 22, 2015, Graphite One Advisory Board Member Dan McGroarty was interviewed in a CBS “60 Minutes” segment titled: “Modern Life’s Devices Under China’s Grip.” The segment highlighted the dangers of foreign dependency on elements essential to green technologies, high technologies and advanced weapons systems. The CBS “60 Minutes” segment can be viewed at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rare-earth-elements-china-monopoly-60-minutes-lesley-stahl/.
“While 60 Minutes focused on rare earths for which the United States is more than 90% dependent on Chinese supply, concerns about resource dependency apply equally to natural graphite,” said Anthony Huston, President and CEO of Graphite One. “For nearly 25 years, the U.S. has been 100% import dependent for the graphite it uses, with China providing more than 70% of the world’s supply. Graphite, like rare earths, has been recognized by the U.S. Government as a critical material.”
The 60 Minutes piece aired just days before Lisa Murkowski, U.S. Senator (R-AK) and Chair of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources, introduced a bill titled “The American Mineral Security Act of 2015,” which would direct the U.S. Geological Survey to establish a critical minerals list, and reform the federal mine permitting process. “It is not just rare earths that we depend on from China, and it is not just China that we depend on for a stunning array of minerals that improve every aspect of our daily lives,” said Senator Murkowski. “Right as foreign oil becomes less of a national concern, our foreign mineral dependence has taken its place as an insidious threat to America’s security, growth and competitiveness.”
Finally, the U.S. House and Senate Armed Services Committees have just released the Pentagon’s Strategic and Critical Materials 2015 Report on Stockpile Requirements, which included “natural flake graphite” on its watch list of “shortfall materials,” based on its modeling of supply and demand for various materials measured against specific crisis scenarios.
The report was done by the Defense Logistics Agency Strategic Materials division, which “continuously monitors supply chains of materials that are important to specific Department of Defense (“DoD”) defense systems and weapons platforms.” According to the Pentagon report, “Defense uses of natural graphite include batteries, lubricants, body armor, engine turbine components, coatings for aircraft manufacture, and missile parts.” The report notes that “The United States has no domestic production of natural graphite, but it is consumed by roughly 90 U.S. companies.” “Top-quality flake graphite will likely see an increase in demand in the coming years; meanwhile the supply looks to be steady at best and there are concerns about potential export controls out of China.”
“We see it from the Pentagon, the U.S. Congress and in the mainstream media,” noted Anthony Huston. “Critical materials supply is increasingly essential to economic development, energy independence and national security. Our Graphite Creek Project in Alaska has the potential to be a significant supplier of high quality, large flake graphite at a time when technology is driving increasing demand – and has established natural graphite as a critical and strategic mineral.”
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