Great Lakes Graphite announced May 25 that it has crossed a key threshold toward becoming a commercial player by recently completing two transactions with two customers.
The Toronto-based industrial minerals producer, which is refurbishing a mill for grinding graphite flake near Timmins, said each of the customers received material that will be “used for product qualification and performance testing.”
The material delivered was produced at a pilot plant facility and will be representative of the kind of material that will be produced in the near future at its micronization plant at Matheson, 70 kilometres east of Timmins.
The facility grinds graphite into a fine powder that will be used in grease, lubricating fluids, drilling fluids, brake pads and battery components.
With the power hooked up and switched on at the plant, the company said it’s testing all the components involved in the micronization circuits and is making headway toward commissioning the mill.
The facility is owned by Northfil Resources. Great Lakes Graphite has an agreement to share use of a portion of the plant.
“Advancing the company to the point where we are now prepared and able to accept and fulfill purchase orders from customers has required a sustained and focused effort from a highly motivated team,” said company CEO Paul Gorman in a statement.
“A manageable number of modest purchase orders are enabling us to build out the internal systems and capabilities we require to rapidly scale our business. This approach enables us to ensure that the internal procedures and controls are implemented and working as designed in advance of the next steps for the company."
The company is ironing out the details of a marketing agreement with an undisclosed Fortune 500 company that makes and markets “highly engineered advanced materials” for global customers in a wide field of markets.
