Australian graphene technology company, Talga Resources, has received positive results from a detailed 10-month assessment by the CSIRO on samples from the company's high grade and wholly-owned Nunasvaara graphite deposit in Sweden.
The assessment was conducted pursuant to a collaboration agreement with Talga as part of CSIRO’s focus on potential graphene-producing natural ore deposits.
The test work was funded by CSIRO and the Federal Department of Industry’s ‘Researchers in Business Program’ in conjunction with Talga.
In a comprehensive 128 page report, CSIRO research authors Mark A. Pearce and Bélinda M. Godel concluded that the Nunasvaara graphite deposit is highly crystalline, was formed from a biogenic carbon source and that graphene liberated by Talga directly from uncrushed raw Nunasvaara graphite ore, showed thin, electron transparent 2-10 micron size graphene.
Talga considers this size range is a key advantage as it enables a greater variety of bulk graphene applications to be catered to including additives to battery materials, composites, anti-corrosion paints/coatings and polymers.
Talga’s Managing Director, Mr Mark Thompson said: “The report is highly technical and the bulk of its content is commercial-in-confdence but we are highly encouraged by both the calibre and intensity of the CSIRO test program applied to the Nunasvaara ore, and the scientifc integrity of the fndings.
“The tests achieved our objective of gaining a deeper insight to our natural graphite-graphene deposits via a mineralogical characterisation at a larger scale than provided by our nanotechnology research programs,” he said.
Other key conclusions included that the distribution of graphite flakes within the Nunasvaara ore matrix was highly homogeneous, particularly compared with more conventional global deposits, and that late stage vein graphite occurs deposited by notably low-temperature fluids. Collectively the data assists Talga in confirming key aspects of how its natural graphite ores were formed and can be used to optimise exploration and processing methodologies towards maximum graphene production capability.
