Green Critical Minerals’ new graphite processing tech has rich early commercialisation potential

Green Critical Minerals acquires revolutionary technology to produce VHD Graphite
Product has the highest thermal conductivity and lowest electrical resistivity recorded for any bulk graphite material
Company targeting commercialisation within 12 months

Special Report: Green Critical Minerals has acquired a ground-breaking technology that offers a pathway to early revenue by converting graphite into saleable very high-density graphite blocks.

GCM will immediately move into the pilot stage of proving up its graphite technology.

At just $3.7m, its market cap is a fraction of the ASX peers at the same or even earlier stages of assessment.

VHD Graphite has amongst the highest thermal conductivity ever recorded for any bulk material, reaching 617 W/m·K along the grain, making it an exceptional material for heat management applications, and the lowest electrical resistivity (of 1.2 µΩ·m) ever measured for any bulk graphite product.

Notable applications include materials for the defence and nuclear industries, thermal energy storage systems, high performance electronics, battery electrodes, heat sinks and aerospace.

Importantly for Green Critical Minerals (ASX:GCM), the acquisition from world renowned and leading materials and engineering scientist Professor Charles Sorrell and team from the University of New South Wales grants the opportunity to expand its product suite further downstream and tap into the industrial and electronics market that’s worth US$680bn annually.

“The acquisition of this VHD Graphite technology represents a significant milestone for GCM, aligned with our strategy to move to revenue generating operations expediently through opportunities where we have a significant competitive advantage,” Managing Director Clinton Booth said.

“This technology is at an advanced stage of product development and is ready to move to demonstration level, with the potential for near term commercialisation, coupled with significant upside through further R&D to the premium graphite markets like high performance electronics, semiconductors, heat sinks, electrical discharge machining and the defence and nuclear industries, leveraging VHD’s incredible properties which are better or comparable to Pyrolytic graphite properties.

“We believe this technology will potentially revolutionise the graphite market, with the ability to produce VHD Graphite at a fraction of the cost of pyrolytic graphite, providing GCM a significant competitive advantage.”

Highlighting the vendor’s confidence in the technology, there is no upfront consideration for the acquisition with the company to make deferred payments of $500,000, $2m and $2.5m only after it achieves gross revenue milestones of $5m, $20m and $50m respectively.

VHD Graphite block. Pic: Green Critical Minerals

Faster and better

The Cerex technology invented by Sorrell and team has been proven to produce VHD Graphite blocks with industry leading material properties such as unparalleled density, alignment and purity, some of which have never been achieved in commercial graphite production.

Its properties are superior or comparable to those of nuclear and pyrolytic graphite, which can sell for over US$1,000/kg in premium markets.

What makes it a potential disruptor in these markets is that the proprietary production process does not require any specialised infrastructure or complex manufacturing techniques and can produce graphite products within 24-36 hours using lower graphitisation temperatures.

This compares with traditional synthetic graphite production which requires up to 12 weeks of processing at extremely high temperatures.

Collectively, this makes the VHD Graphite technology highly competitive due to delivering products with outstanding thermal conductivity and low electrical resistivity at lower costs thanks to its proprietary, energy-efficient manufacturing process.

GCM adds that given its unique properties, it expects that the final VHD Graphite product can be produced in a mould, allowing a large variety of graphite shapes and blocks to be manufactured.

The highway to commercialisation

GCM plans to move VHD Graphite into production within the next 12 months, leveraging its proprietary technology to quickly capitalise on its market potential.

To achieve this, it will now explore the potential simplicity and adaptability of the manufacturing process by demonstrating and confirming the ability to cost effectively manufacture graphite products to specific customer requirements or specifications.

Other activities include:

Engaging a Head of Research and Development
Further evaluating and understanding potential application markets
Fit out the laboratory
Production samples at pilot plant scale, including validation of laboratory-scale sample fabrication and properties
Scale-up to commercial production-scale, producing sample fabrication and properties; and
Marketing and qualification of sample products for commercial sales.

This article was developed in collaboration with Green Critical Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.