Sting-Inspired Zenyatta Climbs on Canadian Graphite Find
By Gerrit De Vynck & Christopher Donville - Aug 27, 2013 6:01 AM GMT+0200

Zenyatta Ventures Ltd. (ZEN) has soared 2,000 percent in the past year after discovering a graphite deposit it said may be among the world’s most valuable. Now the explorer has to prove it.
The C$206 million ($196 million) Canadian company, which has no revenue or income, is the second-best performer among the country’s natural-resource stocks. The shares climbed after it said the grade of graphite from its Albany project in northwest Ontario may rival the world’s highest-quality supplies, which are used in nuclear power plants and metal refining.
“They have to prove the size of their deposit, the cost of producing the graphite and that there’s demand for the production,” Jon Hykawy, a Toronto-based analyst at Byron Capital Markets Ltd., said in an Aug. 22 telephone interview. “The sooner the better for everyone.”
Graphite, which like diamonds and coal is a form of carbon, is prized for its capacity to conduct heat and electricity. Natural graphite is used in brake linings, high-temperature lubricants, pencils and to strengthen products including steel, golf clubs and tennis rackets.
Natural supplies come in three varieties including vein graphite, which commands the highest prices and is only mined in Sri Lanka. A synthetic variety, made from petroleum coke, vies with vein graphite for use in lithium-ion batteries for iPads and hybrid vehicles.
Zenyatta Mondatta
Thunder Bay, Ontario-based Zenyatta, which takes its name from The Police’s 1980 “Zenyatta Mondatta” album, says its deposit is similar to Sri Lankan supplies and the graphite can be refined to synthetic standards at a lower cost.
“We’re talking to some downstream companies that are reviewing this and saying that this is some amazing stuff,” Zenyatta Chief Executive Officer Aubrey Eveleigh, who keeps a vinyl version of the record by the Sting-led band in his office, said in an Aug. 16 telephone interview. “They’ll test it and see what applications it can go into.”
Zenyatta closed yesterday at C$3.74. Its 21-fold increase in the past year compares with an average 33 percent drop for the 1,718 other Canadian resource companies tracked by Bloomberg as prices from gold to copper slumped after China’s economy slowed.

The company’s performance ranks behind only that of Alpha Minerals Inc. (AMW), a uranium explorer that is a takeover target.

See:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-27/sting-inspired-zenyatta-climbs-on-canad
ian-graphite-find.html