Emerging Graphene Technology Company

Hydrothermal Graphite Deposit Ammenable for Commercial Graphene Applications

Free
Message: Best Ever

From Jayfish on another Board. This post about says it all.

I don't have a magic wand nor any clairvoyant abilities however as someone who has followed the Zenyatta story from early on I am often surprised that those seeking direction on the companies future miss the obvious answers to their questions.

Zenyatta 's discovery of a very rare and unique hydrothermal graphite discovery is interesting in itself.

Zenyatta did not go seeking graphite ,but was targeting a number of geophysical targets located in Northern Ontario. The thought being these targets held potential for large base metal deposits ( cu, NI zinc)
As it turned out the most significant find was the graphite.

Aubrey would be the first to tell you that graphite was not initially something he was excited to find ,but it's discovery coincided with renewed interest world wide in graphite. This fuelled by the growth in electrical vehicles and lithium battery use.

This interest led to addition testing and others took notice of the uniqueness of the graphite formation . Dr. Andrew Conly being one of those who noted the special nature of the graphites origin.
It's certain that had not Conly and others performed their tests Zenyatta would not be a graphite company today
Eveleigh has stated that had the deposit been a flake deposit he would of left it for others .
Flake graphite deposits are many and those companies struggle to reach the purity and special characteristics through expensive dirty processes that Zenyatta had Mother Nature do for them.

So. Zenyatta starts of with a rare unique ,very valuable deposit of hydrothermal graphite in excess of a million tonnes. This is obviously quite the advantage over other graphite projects ,both is quality and quantity.

In mining size does matter

What did they do next? It was obvious that to take this project further they needed to bring in experts, both in mining and in market development .

Ken Stowe was brought onto the the Zenyatta board . Mr. Stowe is a mining industry veteran with an impressive resume. His time at Northgate Minerals, Noranda and Diamond Fields provided over 35 years experience.
He also recieved the award for Canadian Mineral Processor of the year in 2006.

Eveleigh recognized Stowe as a respected and accomplished mining executive with vision and technical expertise. His knowledge and experience was surely helpful in metallurgical testing and working with RPA and Zenyatta's Field team managed by Peter Wood.

Eveleigh also recognized that in addition to mining experts Zenyatta required someone with expertise in market development . The acquisition of Dr Bharat resulted in the establishment of a group focused on advancing market opportunities for the Albany graphite .

Dr. Chahar came to Zenystta with over 30 years of carbon research and development mainly with ConocoPhillips. His academic background includes a Chemical Engineering Degree from the Indian Insitute of Technology at Deli, a M Sc. from the University of Alberta and. ph D Chemical Engineering from Rice University USA.

Dr Chahar was Global Marketing Manager and Product Manager for CPREME Graphite Materials at ConocoPhillips He basically created a new business that produced and supplied graphite anodes for lithium-ion batteries using synthetic graphite
Conoco being the worlds biggest producer of petroleum needle coke the source for synthetic graphite production.
Chahar has been quoted as saying that it's his belief that Zenyatta's graphite can replace synthetic " it's a special natural graphite deposit unlike any other that I've seen in the industry I am thrilled and excited to be part of a top notch Zen team to help bring this unique graphite product to the market in my experience if you offer a better product with an obvious advantage the world will be the path your door".

Since joining the Zen Team Chahar was able to convince a former colleague, Tadashi Yamashita to join Zenyatta.
Mr Yamashita like Dr Chahar is a chemical engineer based inTokyo Japan
His role has been to work with graphite users in Japan and Asia to introduce the natural Zenyatta graphite as an alternative to synthetic and Chinese dirty graphite .

Mr Yamishita is very excited about the quality and special qualities of Zenyatta graphite . He has been instrumental in developing contacts with Japanese and other Asian companies that have signed NDA and are testing the product. He along with government officials have facilitated direct meetings between Zenystta and Asian Graphite users.

An obvious question would be how are these producing benefits to Zen?

Well the answer is in the press releases by companies like Ballard and researchers at Ben Gurion University

In August 2015 Zenyatta announced a collaborative effort between Itself and Ballard Power to study the use of Zen graphite in fuel cell development . In October 2015 only months later Ballard announced initiation of a project utilizing high purity albany graphite in the membrane electrode assembly of a fuel cell.

In December 2015 Ballard provided an update on the research involving Zenyatta graphite in the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) of a fuel cell. The MEA which includes the gas diffusion layer ( GDL) is a critical component of the Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell that has strict performance standards for the fuel cell to preform properly.

The Ballard labs prototyped GDLs with " run of the lab" samples of graphite provided by Zenyatta that recieved no special processing or customization .
The GDLs produced using Zenyatta Graphite were compared against those produced with benchmark synthetic graphite. The results reported by Ballard showed the Zenyatta prototype to be essentialy identical to the benchmark material in all the functionality tests .

On March 29 2016 Zenyatta and Ballard provided an additional update on the fuel cell research .
This phase 4 tests showed increased confidence in Zenyatta graphite to be an effective alternative to synthetic graphite .
The development of a fuel cell stack with Zen graphite compared key mechanical and electrical properties within a commercial product platform to that using synthetic graphite.
The results were all in Zenyattas favour favour for meeting the specifications needed for high performance of Ballard products.

The Ballard report also concluded that from an environmental and cost advantage "Zenyatta graphite provides a clean carbon option for fuel cell components "

Zenyatta now awaits the next phase of testing. I was told that the testing process is ongoing and it is believed there are few phases left. I am excited when you consider its only been months to achieve the results to date.

Graphene


Another exciting field of graphite research and development is the making of graphene. There are many articles about graphene . An early TED talk video by Justin Hall Tipping titled Freeing a Energy from the grid is available on YouTube .
I was impressed by this videos view on the potential of graphene but at the time realised that commercial development of graphene was years away. It turned out I was a bit pessimistic and research and development moved along much quicker than I thought .

On Sept 24 2015 Dr. Oren Regev and Dr. Ilan Pribar of Ben Gurion University of the Negev ( Israel) stated that after tests involving Zenyatta Albany graphite they identified properties of the Zenyatta Albany graphite that show positive attributes for use in multiple graphene applications.
Researchers tested the Zenyatta graphite on dispersion and application for composite property enhancement on drug delivery and hydrogen storage devices. The researchers regularly use various types of commercially available natural flake graphite but found out Zenyatta graphite to exfoliate under sonication p much easier and with higher yields of graphene nanoparticles than any other natural graphite types that they have tested .

Drs Regev and Pribar stated " we believe that this is a high-value special material with unique characteristics that could make Albany graphite the preferred material for conversion to valuable graphene applications"

The research by Ballard and BGU seems to validate earlier confidence show by the governments of Canada and Ontario
The federal Govt through the. National research Council of Canada provided research grants to study the origin and special characteristics of the Albany Zenyatta graphite

On Jan 27 2016 Dr Aicheng Chen professor of Chemistry and Canada Research Chair in Materials and Enviromental Chemistry at Lakehead was awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) grant
The purpose of this research is to (1)characterize the physical and chemical properties of Zenyatts Albany graphite,(2) to understand it's electro chemical behaviours (3) to modify the album the graphite for practical applications and to develop advanced carbon nano materials like graphene.

Since the awarding of this grant Dr. Chen and his research group have made significant advances in the characterization of Zenyattas Albany graphite and the development of new materials from it for practical applications .
Dr Chen from analytical perspective the Albany graphite meets all the stringent requirements for a high-quality product encompassing high purity crystallinity thermostability and high surface area.
interestingly the crystallinity found in Zenyattas Albany graphite was greater than of commercially available graphite samples which were also tested for comparative purposes".


I encourage you to read Dr Chens comments within the Zen press release


In addition to the Government supporting Dr Chen they sponsored Dr Andrew Conly in his research
Conly is credited with early recognition of the special origin of the Albany deposit.
Conly was instrumental in showing the value of Zenystta to the scientific community

Dr Andrew Conly released his paper on Dec 22 2015 concluding the uniqueness of Zenyatta graphite and showed the similarities to synthetic graphite.
His presentation at the Symposium Critical and Strategic Materials was very well recieved I am told .

In the report Conly concludes " The Albany a deposit is a distinctive type of igneous hosted fluid derived graphite mineralization. igneous hosted deposits are very rare as these environments do not usually provide suitable conditions for the formation of sizeable deposits the defining characteristic of the deposit is the occurrence of crystalline fine grained graphite within two large Brescia pipes. The formation of the Albany deposit required and unusual combination of geological factors approximately 1 billion years ago "

So despite all the experts and learned opinions that I've stated that Zenyatta has all the right characteristics and uniqueness to be very valuable and successful there have been attacks upon it with people making claims disputing what these experts have said.

We have read about claims of impurities and of high and dangerous aggressive acids being used Even though all these claims have been proven to be false and Zenyatta is recognized as a clean alternative to synthetic graphite .

I guess some choose to believe the rants of those who have an agenda to harm Zenyatta over what I see as proven credible experts . The evidence speaks for itself though

The question we started with on where Zen is going seems very clear to me
We have to best graphite in the world with a huge deposit .
It has been proven to me by very knowledgeble people that we shall be successful
. A timeline has been sought by many and as I said I lack clairvoyant powers but all one has to read to see where the future lies .

I hate to make a prediction but using my graphene powered Chrystal ball and fortune cookies I see great things to come within months not years

PS too tired to correct the many spelling and grammar errors
Share
New Message
Please login to post a reply