{"id":21560,"date":"2022-05-18T15:14:41","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T14:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=21560"},"modified":"2022-05-18T15:14:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T14:14:41","slug":"progression-graphite-mine-development-tanzania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/progression-graphite-mine-development-tanzania\/21560\/","title":{"rendered":"The progression of graphite mine development in Tanzania"},"content":{"rendered":"
Matt Bull, Technical and Executive Director of Armadale Capital, outlines the objectives and progress made on the Mahenge Liandu Graphite Project in Tanzania.<\/h2>\n
Graphite is a crystalline form of the carbon element, with its atoms arranged in a hexagonal structure. Graphite is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity, making it ideal for uses in electronic products such as electrodes, batteries, and solar panels. The high thermal stability and thermal conductivity of graphite facilitates its use in refractories in high temperature material processing applications. It also makes an ideal form of lubricant due to its weakly bonded hexagonal structure, allowing graphite layers to be easily separated and slide past each other.<\/p>\n
There are two forms of graphite used in the world today, synthetic and natural. Synthetic graphite is manufactured by high-temperature treatment to graphitise carbon materials such as petroleum coke and coal tar pitch. The main area of consumption is as electrodes for electronic arc furnaces but, due to the high temperatures of 2500-3000\u00b0C and the long heating times for production of synthetic graphite, it is a high-cost product.<\/p>\n
Natural graphite comes in three forms: amorphous, vein, and flake. Amorphous, due to its tendency to strongly adhere to the surrounding minerals, is difficult to recover to purities above 85% total graphitic carbon (TGC) using conventional mineral processing methods and is therefore not used in high-tech applications due to additional processing costs.<\/p>\n
Flake graphite is used for refractories, batteries, powder metallurgy, gaskets and seals, and thermal management. Future graphite demand is expected to be driven by application with high growth rates, specifically for:<\/p>\n