USGS Finds Little Growth for Domestic Miners; Increased Import Reliance

A recent article in mining.com highlighted Graphite One Resources Inc. (TSXV:GPH, OTCQX:GPHOF) and the United States’ foreign reliance on key minerals and the growing need to begin production on domestic mines.
As quoted in the article:

In January, Graphite One Resources Inc. published the results of a preliminary economic assessment, or PEA, that envisions Graphite Creek being a domestic source for roughly 55,350 metric tons of coated spherical graphite and other specialty graphite materials once the operation reached full production.
“This PEA shows the strong potential of our project as America’s emerging producer of lithium ion battery-grade coated spherical graphite,” said Graphite One CEO Anthony Huston.
The economic assessment outlines plans for mining and a recovery plant at the western Alaska site and an advanced material processing facility closer to potential buyers of the finished graphite products. Due to its maritime links to Alaska, low-cost power and proximity to markets, Washington is being considered as a potential site for the processing facility.
The portion of the deposit considered in the PEA hosts 744,000 metric tons of graphite contained in 10.3 million metric ton of indicated resource grading 7.2 percent graphite. This does not count the 5 million tons of graphite in 71.2 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 7 percent graphite, or the large expanse of the deposit that has yet to be drilled.
“With the prospect of a low-cost, 40-year mine life using half of the identified graphite mineral resources, and given our projected production costs and conservative pricing assumptions, we are confident that Graphite One has the potential to become a reliable provider of graphite materials critical to clean-tech, high-tech and national security applications,” Huston added.
According to USGS, there are currently no domestic sources of the graphite used in the United States, which resulted in manufacturers looking to other countries for 39,500 metric tons of the carboniferous material during 2016. Again, China was America’s largest supplier of this commodity, followed by Canada, Brazil, Japan, Mexico and Madagascar.
While the tonnage of graphite consumed by U.S. manufacturers last year is less than what Graphite One hopes to produce at its Alaska project, USGS see a major spike in demand when Tesla Motor’s Gigafactory, an enormous lithium ion battery facility being constructed in Nevada, is fully operational.

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