Special Report: Momentum is building for First Graphene, signing a slew of new agreements and making key hires as it works towards building the sales book for its PureGRAPH™ products.

Graphene is a promising nanomaterial that can greatly enhance the performance of a wide range of materials used in industry, from something as basic as concrete through to elastomers, fire retardants paints, polymers, transportation, sports and leisure equipment and energy storage.

Many companies promote the benefits of graphene, but few seem to match First Graphene’s focus on ensuring the quality of product required for commercial applications.

Its three main PureGRAPH™ graphene products, with lateral platelet sizes of 5, 10 and 20 microns with very high aspect ratios, were announced in September and have already secured commercial interest.

PureGRAPH™ is being trialled in a number real world products, as opposed to bench scale tests, placing First Graphene on the cusp of being able to announce real sales contracts, instead of small quantities for test work.

Last month, the company (ASX:FGR) announced a successful commercial application for the newly-released products: improving the protective polymer linings of critical mining equipment.

This could lead to a strong growth curve as mining equipment suppliers around the world seek to improve the quality of their products.

Since then, the company has also struck up two new relationships which it hopes will lead to ongoing sales.

The first is with, FlexeGRAPH, a company using nanotechnology to improve the efficiency of cooling and heat transfer fluids – a $3 billion market in Australia that includes applications such as cooling electrified systems such as batteries and high-performance computing and data centres.

The second is with Chemiplas, one of the largest, privately owned suppliers of chemicals, raw materials, ingredients and advanced technologies to the Australasian region.

It is testing PureGRAPH™ in a range of sports and recreational equipment.

Building the sales book

First Graphene Managing Director, Craig McGuckin, said that over the past year the company’s priority has been establishing capacity at its facility in Henderson, south of Fremantle and ensuring the quality of its products were of the highest standard.

Now, the emphasis has shifted to building the sales book across a number of product lines.

“Whilst graphene is a relatively new industrial product without an established market platform, we’re making great progress on a number of fronts towards getting graphene into commercial products. We are making the market and in the process, we are capitalising on our significant first-mover advantage,” he said.

“Shareholders will be pleasantly surprised with what we have been achieving and the know-how we are building, we will be the first-choice graphene supplier.”

“There’s a rising tide in demand from a vast range of manufacturers seeking to benefit from the next generation of materials. First Graphene is in the box seat to supply them.”

Supporting the company as it grows are a number of new hires, including Dr Andy Goodwin who joins as full-time Chief Technology Officer.

Dr Goodwin will be based in the UK and facilitate First Graphene’s ongoing relationships in the UK, EU and USA markets.

First Graphene is also seeking to list on the AIM, formerly known as the Alternative Investment Market, which is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange.

“The UK investment community has had more exposure to graphene companies than Australia and a quote on the AIM will give us access to a greater pool of investment capital as we embark on a big stage of our growth,” the company says.

 

First Graphene is a Stockhead advertiser.

This advice has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. You should, therefore, consider the appropriateness of the advice, in light of your own objectives, financial situation or needs, before acting on the advice. If this advice relates to the acquisition, or possible acquisition, of a particular financial product, the recipient should obtain a disclosure document, a Product Disclosure Statement or an offer document (PDS) relating to the product and consider the PDS before making any decision about whether to acquire the product.

 

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