Focus Graphite -- ehem. FOCUS METALS - EINE NEUE GRAPHIT / REE - PERLE !!!! (Seite 137)

[MIRU]

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Schlachtfest !!!!

[Last_Man_Standing]

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 43.155.457 von Last_Man_Standing am 11.05.12 22:12:54

Schön finde ich, dass man sich erstmal auf den Markt konzentriert, der schon besteht. Man baut keine Luftschlösser. Denke, wir werden an unserem Invest noch viel Freude haben

Auszug:
“The automotive sector is one area we’re interested in, of course. But there are others we’re going after too. For example, two major growth areas are notebook computers and tablets. Until recently a lot of the batteries were ni-cad or nickel-metal-hydride. Now, with the ultra-thin, ultra-light computers and tablets, it’s all lithium. They’re looking at producing 450 million tablets in five years. The number is just astounding. If you look at electric handtools, every one of them is changing from nickel-metal-hydride to lithium-ion batteries. That’s another huge market. I went to the hardware store the other day to buy a lawnmower. They had five gas-powered models and seven electric.

[Last_Man_Standing]

May 10th, 2012, 4:00 pm
Focus Metals, Hydro-Québec sign Technology, Production Agreements

Focus Metals Inc TSXV:FMS and L’institut de recherche d’Hydro-Québec announced a licensing agreement enabling Focus to develop a graphite-purification facility and a graphite-anode production facility for lithium-ion batteries. Under the agreement, Focus will build new purification and production facilities, which the company will own and manage. IREQ will provide technical support and cooperate in future technology improvements.

Subject to positive economic analysis, the purification facility will produce up to 15,000 tonnes of spherical battery-grade flake graphite by 2015, using graphite from the company’s Lac Knife Project in Quebec. The anode facility will produce up to 5,000 tonnes of anodes. Costs of the facilities and financing have yet to be determined. The battery-grade process will be incorporated into Lac Knife’s PEA scheduled for June.

In exchange for the technology licence, technological support and future processing improvements, IREQ will receive a licensing fee over a three-year period, representing less than 10% of the current working capital, as well as a royalty on future sales. IREQ is recognized as a global leader in the development of advanced materials for battery manufacturing. It holds over 100 patent rights and 15 licences for battery materials used by some of the world’s most successful battery manufacturers and materials suppliers. IREQ also partners with private-sector companies to build electric-vehicle and hybrid-electric-vehicle charging stations.

Focus President/CEO Gary Economo tells ResourceClips.com, “Hydro-Québec has been engaged in the electric-vehicle sector for many, many years. They’ve developed these lithium-battery technologies with a couple of thoughts in mind. One was for hydro-energy storage, and the other was for the transportation sector. They’ve invested a lot of money in both areas. They had a company which was slightly ahead of its time in the electric-vehicle market. It ended up getting sold to a French conglomerate. Hydro-Québec also invested in motor drives for electric vehicles in a subsidiary called TM4 and a bunch of other investments. Their mandate is to advance the electrification of the transportation industry. They have major, major projects in that sector, as well as in energy storage and data transmission through powerlines, like the smart-grid program. They spend an awful lot of time, money and effort in advancing the use of hydro.

“We’re hoping the spherical-graphite production facility will open by the end of 2013. For the first 12 months, it would produce about 10,000 tonnes of 95% material. [The 2015 goal is 15,000 tonnes.] The production plant for anodes and the mine itself are targeted to open at the same time.

“I don’t think there’s a market for other graphite in batteries, apart from spherical graphite. Spherical graphite provides the best capacities and best performance for batteries. The market is constantly looking to improve performance, cost, weight, size and everything else.”

Responding to a Reuters story that stated battery manufacturers prefer synthetic graphite, Economo says, “Synthetic graphite is being used in lithium batteries. Battery manufacturers need consistency from their suppliers. So when they say synthetic graphite is easier to control, I think they’re saying their suppliers are controlling the quality of the material from one batch to another. When you order natural graphite from a distributor, you don’t know what mine it’s coming from. There’s a variety of batches, and it’s very difficult for a battery manufacturer to maintain quality control. Synthetic graphite is a lot more consistent, so a lot of battery manufacturers have opted to use it, even though it’s two to three times more expensive. Those are the companies making very high-quality, high-end batteries. Companies like that are very excited to see people like us come into the market with a very large deposit so we can guarantee them a consistent supply of product.”

Economo continues, “Graphite prices are not going to go through the roof. They’re stabilized; they’re going to run about $1,800 to $2,000 a tonne. Producing a tonne of 95% concentrate is expensive, if you have a low-grade deposit. We’re lucky that we have a 16% grade. Our cost to produce a tonne of 95% material is fairly low. It’s about $350 a tonne right now. So we have a huge margin available to us. That’s especially important because the price of graphite isn’t going to increase. The market can’t accept it. There is a demand for graphite and a need for it from lithium-ion battery manufacturers, but new mines will open to satisfy that demand. I don’t see prices rising.

“The automotive sector is one area we’re interested in, of course. But there are others we’re going after too. For example, two major growth areas are notebook computers and tablets. Until recently a lot of the batteries were ni-cad or nickel-metal-hydride. Now, with the ultra-thin, ultra-light computers and tablets, it’s all lithium. They’re looking at producing 450 million tablets in five years. The number is just astounding. If you look at electric handtools, every one of them is changing from nickel-metal-hydride to lithium-ion batteries. That’s another huge market. I went to the hardware store the other day to buy a lawnmower. They had five gas-powered models and seven electric.

“The automotive sector might not catch on as fast as some people think it will,” Economo cautions. “Personally I think it’ll take more time because to have that amount of vehicles on the streets you also need the infrastructure. If you go to China, India or Europe, you’ll see some of the motorcycles and even bicycles are electric. It’s mandated now in China that they can’t have any more gas-powered mopeds. So there’s a huge, huge market for graphite in the lithium-battery sector, even without the automotive industry. I think the automotive business will just be the icing on the cake.”

Focus holds a 40% interest in Grafoid Inc, a joint venture created to find proprietary methods of manufacturing graphene from graphite mined at Lac Knife.

“It’s going really, really well,” Economo says. “Grafoid’s working on a number of projects for some major corporations in terms of R&D and developing patents and intellectual property. We need to prove the scalability of the process. A pilot plant is being built, and it will be ready and operable in five weeks. So as soon as we have the material from our drill program we’ll be able to get that plant going and prove the scalability of the manufacture of graphene. We make graphene now, but it’s in small batches in a lab environment. We want to scale it to large batches and see how big the batches can be.”

The pilot plant’s location is secret.

“There are signs of industrial espionage,” Economo reports. “We’ve seen it, and we want to be extra careful. There are people out there who have tried, and will continue to try, to get trade secrets.”

As for the Lac Knife Project, “Our PEA is scheduled for June 7. We don’t need a feasibility study. We’ll have offtake agreements and financing to take us into production. We’re working on five different companies for potential offtakes.”

The company has additional claims in Quebec’s Tetepisca region and in the region of Timcal Graphite & Carbon’s Lac-des-Îles Graphite Mine. “We have an exploration program in which geologists will visit all the claims, Economo says. “That starts next week. We have a big drill program starting next month up at Lac Knife. We want to see how big this thing is. It’s open at all directions and at depth. We also want to get some material because some of our potential clients will test it. We also want to have some material for our graphene development.”

Focus Metals is changing its name to Focus Graphite.

“Our new name has been approved by shareholders. We’re just doing the paperwork and filing it with the exchange. So I would say it takes effect now.”

Economo concludes, “Over the last couple of years we’ve de-risked and advanced this discovery to the point that, with our scoping study next month, we’ll be ready to go to permitting and take it to production. We’re well financed; we have $27 million in the bank. We’re an exceptionally advanced company with a business plan to take advantage of the upstream products, as opposed to just mining graphite and selling it in bulk. We want to take advantage of the value-add that we can bring to a particular customer. So our focus, no pun intended, is to provide customer solutions for technology graphite applications. We’re looking forward to our scoping study and signing our offtake agreements and getting the permitting done so we can get some graphite out of the ground.”

http://resourceclips.com/2012/05/10/focus-metals-hydro-quebe…

[ThumsUp]

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 43.152.560 von extremrelaxer am 11.05.12 13:23:47

is kein pappenstiel...

[extremrelaxer]

Insiderkäufe:


Filing
Date

Transaction
Date

Insider Name

Ownership
Type

Securities

Nature of transaction

# or value acquired or disposed of

Unit
Price



May 10/12

May 10/12

York, Jeffrey

Direct Ownership

Common Shares

10 - Acquisition in the public market

10,000

$0.890




May 8/12

May 8/12

York, Jeffrey

Direct Ownership

Common Shares

10 - Acquisition in the public market

25,000

$0.920




Apr 18/12

Apr 18/12

York, Jeffrey

Direct Ownership

Common Shares

10 - Acquisition in the public market

35,000

$0.960

http://www.canadianinsider.com/node/7?menu_tickersearch=FMS+…

[Raginghammer]

http://www.focusgraphite.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/May-…



Focus Metals 2nd Annual General Meeting | Speech
(Download the PDF).

By: Gary Economo
President and CEO, Focus Metals Inc.

May 3, 2012

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to our second Annual General Meeting.

My name is Gary Economo and I’m President and CEO of Focus Metals. I’m pleased to announce that our shareholders have voted and have consented to our request to change our corporate identity to Focus Graphite Inc.

A year ago, at our first AGM, I described Focus Metals as an exciting young company with an ambition to create a bonanza for our shareholders.

Focus Graphite remains an exciting young company and we’re about to realize those ambitions we still hold for creating that shareholder bonanza. Here’s why:

Our management approach to success is based upon our “business unusual” philosophy, that is, breaking with the conventions of traditional mining management.

Digging up graphite and selling your product into the market is good if that’s all you aspire to.

We saw opportunities to add immense value to our future production by implementing a strategy to beat the market and our competitors.

That strategy is built upon Lac Knife’s 16%, industry-leading grade.

We knew, and we had the confidence to pioneer a new wave of thinking in our industry by incorporating technology innovation into our business vision.

I can state today, without any reservation that our technology-driven focus has been met with success on a number of fronts.

The Year in Review

During the last year, we saw our share price ebb and flow as the market apprised itself of, and began considering both the short and long-term potential of buying into a largely ignored, but ancient commodity.

Again, I can say without reservation or sense of false modesty that Focus paved the way for the interest shown today by commodity investors. Shock and Awe provided the world with the buzzwords that created a focus on Focus.

The graphite mining sector has changed dramatically during the last 12 months.

Today, there are a number of new entrants looking to carve out a niche for themselves in the graphite space.

While projected future demand for graphite bodes well for our industry over the longer term, we anticipate some rationalization over the next two-to-five years as new supply sources come onto the market.

China remains the X-Factor, and the pace of demand over the short term will be led by technology end users as new applications for graphite are developed.

Focus Graphite intends to lead the mining sector by assuming a dominant position in the supply of technology graphite to meet sectoral needs based on price, quality and availability.

Lac Knife’s 16% grade and the quality of our “super concentrate” graphite deposit support our ambitions to become the lowest-cost producer of technology graphite in the world.

At the end of the day, only two things matter: the highest graphite grade in the world, and; a management with a vision to build shareholder value from a technology-based enterprise.

Creating a bonanza for our shareholders requires diligence, effort, creativity, and time.

Business innovation, an ability to maximize business opportunities and adding value from a technology source remain the pillars of our management objectives.

Moving into pre-production during the last 12 also brought administrative changes. Chief among them was the appointment of Mr. Tony Brisson as Vice President, Exploration.

Tony’s 2012 Lac Knife plans for Lac Knife drilling program are finalized and drilling should commence in a matter of days or weeks depending on the weather.

We also passed a number of financial and operational milestones as we moved into pre-production development – one of which was significant – the closing of a $20 million bought deal private placement led by Cormark Securities and included Byron Capital and Desjardins Securities.
Among other notable achievements since our last AGM was the hiring of Roscoe Postle Associates – one of the world’s premier mine designers – to begin planning for Lac Knife’s mine construction and supporting requirements.

Last summer, the U.S. financial regulator FINRA approved our request for listing on the premium OTCQX exchange and Standard and Poors launched their coverage of Focus Metals.

Last autumn, we announced our purchase of some 200 Quebec mining claims and we added an additional 65 Quebec claims and properties in January this year.

A Turning Point

Last December, we published our 43-101 compliant resource estimate for our Lac Knife, Quebec deposit. It elevated our status and validated our claim as the holders of the best graphite property in the world.

It opened the door for us to cement our relationships with potential customers and it strengthened our position in discussions leading towards offtakes, or long-term sales/purchase agreements.

It also prompted our financial backers to re-invest in Focus.

On March 14, about five weeks ago, a syndicate led by Cormark that included Byron Capital closed a $10 million bought deal flow-through private placement. Those funds, by regulation, are earmarked for drilling at Lac Knife, at Kwyjibo and for any exploration purposes related to our claims.

That new funding has left us in the enviable position of being very well funded and enabled us to engage in a broader campaign than we had planned for last year.

The preparation of our Preliminary Economic Assessment is underway and that report should be ready for publication in the very near future.

Our recent, preliminary metallurgical report prepared for us by SGS indicated good results and we expect a final recovery report to be published once testing is completed and the results analyzed.

What that initial report confirmed was Lac Knife’s graphite is perfectly suited for green technology and lithium battery applications. And that’s precisely where we’re headed.

As a longer-term investment, we believe Focus stakeholders have come to accept our milestone-by-milestone development. As an emerging company, our “business unusual” continues to break the mold of a traditional mining development company.

Looking Ahead – The Market and Focus Graphite

The year ahead will be interesting to shareholders both domestically and internationally.

As I mentioned earlier, China remains the X-Factor in global markets. Pressure is mounting on the central government from major graphite producers there to grant the same protectionist status given to rare earth producers.

Consolidation of the graphite industry in China has begun, starting with amorphous graphite – a market we don’t compete in – but any moves to restrict flake graphite exports, which account for about half of China’s production will place upward pressure on international prices.

China itself is a world-leading consumer of flake graphite and currently leads the world in electric vehicle development and production including cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles.

Lithium battery and fuel cell development and production go hand-in-hand with China’s green programs. The potential for a rise in prices bodes well for emerging producers - Focus Graphite included - over the short term.

Over the next two to five years however, even with increased margins, the market remains sensitive to China’s ability to undercut markets by introducing more product into markets.

With the ability to produce at the lowest cost, highest quality graphite in the world, Focus Graphite is virtually immune from potential market oversupplies. Conversely, shareholders could anticipate a benefit from the highest possible profit margins.

In the meantime, the greatest value will accrue to our shareholders by continuing to execute our Lac Knife development strategy. We remain uniquely positioned to lead the graphite sector because of our world-class deposit and because we’re positioned to take advantage of market changes which will inevitably occur.

Kwyjibo: 2012 Summer Exploration and Drilling

Our focus remains on a two-phase exploration and summer drilling program with our partner SOQUEM beginning in mid-June and ending mid-September.

A 4,000 meter core drilling program at the Josette site is planned to further define the shape and size of our rare earth resource that will be followed by the release of a 43-101 compliant resource calculation once the drilling results are compiled.

Given the signs of a return to relative stability in rare earth markets, a positive showing from a second technology resource would complement our graphite developments.

Graphene Developments

Earlier this year, Dr. Gordon Chiu, Focus Metals Chief Scientist pronounced our Lac Knife graphite deposit as a “super concentrate” supply source for graphene development. That is, any graphite source with a grading higher than 15%.

Dr. Chiu told a gathering of researchers and scientists in early April he had mated Lac Knife’s graphite with a proprietary process for transforming our graphite ore to an affordable, high quality, high energy graphene.

We expect further news from Dr. Chiu during the course of the next year.

Conclusion

Let me conclude by saying we have every confidence in our abilities to execute a technology-biased business strategy we introduced two years ago.

We shall deliver the two most important elements of that strategy, and they are:

1. to develop Lac Knife to production and to employ those technologies that add value to Lac Knife’s graphite, and;
2. to build shareholder value into each phase of Lac Knife’s development through innovation and through the introduction of those technologies which maximize profits and growth.

Thank you for your attendance here today.

[Raginghammer]

Graphen ist ein Material der Superlative......

Der Link ist von der Website der grössten österreichischen Tageszeitung. Bin gespannt wann mal die Bild Zeitung auf Graphit/Graphen aufmerksam wird.

http://www.krone.at/Wissen/Forscher_entwickeln_intelligentes…

SG
Raging

[extremrelaxer]

THE GAZETTE


Focus Metals and Hydro-Québec sign licensing deal
May 7, 2012

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Focus+Metals+Hydro+Q…

[nicolani]

hier wird einfach nur verhindert, dass ein solcher wert zur zockerbude verkommt, sprich die schmeissfliegen sollen wegbleiben!!think big, think long-term!!

[Last_Man_Standing]

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 43.132.887 von muenchenguru am 07.05.12 22:33:26

Kanns mir auch nicht vorstellen, dass es an diesem Passus liegt. Bzw. hört sich für mich fair als Preis für die technologische Unterstützung von IREQ an.