Beowulf sees potential for battery markets from Finnish graphite project

Finland exploration and development company Beowulf Mining said testing at its Aitolampi graphite project indicated that the programme held a "significant market potential" for lithium-ion battery manufacturers as well as non-battery markets.

Alkaline purification produced 99.9% total carbon for plus 100-mesh concentrate and 99.8% for minus 100-mesh concentrate, while acid purification results reached 99.6% for plus 100-mesh concentrate and 99.4% for the minus 100-mesh leading the group to believe it was capable of meeting the 99.95% purity specifications required for the lithium-ion battery market.

Beowulf said the graphite from Aitolampi returned high crystallinity and was "almost perfect".

The company noted that volatility was low and that specific surface areas of the Finnish graphite was comparable to high-quality flake graphite from China, as was oxidation behaviour.

Beowulf also announced it had commissioned Oy Northdrill, a Finnish drilling company, to drill a further 1,000 metres across the project in March.

Kurt Budge, chief executive, said, "Our consultant, ProGraphite, has built on the prior work, completed by SGS, and its findings demonstrate the broad market attractiveness of the graphite concentrates that we might produce. Not only do we have the potential to serve lithium ion battery manufacturers, but the Aitolampi concentrates' chemical and physical properties could also suit many other applications.

"At Aitolampi, we will re-start drilling in March 2018, conduct more testwork, seek to estimate a maiden resource, and thereafter initiate a Scoping Study. The company's ambition remains to have a graphite asset in production within two to three years."

As of 1100 GMT, shares had climbed 5.77% to 8.20p.