"ZEN hired Roskill to do a market analysis for their graphite. ZEN would have been required to provide 43-101 compliant technical information. How pure is it? How was it tested? How crystalline is it? What is the particle size distribution? And so on. And maybe they're still waiting on the two bulk sample processing reports from SGS to provide more date for Roskill to render a final report.....but that will be a Roskill report, owned by ZEN...... Hoov, today(mar 13) post. Please note new report today: Excerpt (graphs omitted) from Raymond James Research, today "Trends & Ideas"....... : March 13, 2014 Douglas Rowat, Equity Specialist, VP Research & Strategy Graphite: Sharpen Your Pencils Investors have been witness over the past several years to one of the most incredible stock price runs in automotive history as Tesla Motors (TSLA-US) is up more than 1,200% since going public in 2010. It broke through the US$50 level in April 2013 and never looked back currently sitting at US$237. The dramatic move, of course, has been driven not only by the market’s belief in the car’s award-winning design but also in its belief that battery power will be the future of the automotive industry. According to researcher Roskill, production of electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) globally is expected to ramp up from roughly 2 million last year to more than 5 million by 2020. This implies huge growth in demand for lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-Ion Batteries Batteries and storage currentlyTrends & Ideas March 13, 2014 Douglas Rowat, Equity Specialist, VP Research & Strategy Graphite: Sharpen Your Pencils Investors have been witness over the past several years to one of the most incredible stock price runs in automotive history as Tesla Motors (TSLA-US) is up more than 1,200% since going public in 2010. It broke through the US$50 level in April 2013 and never looked back currently sitting at US$237. The dramatic move, of course, has been driven not only by the market’s belief in the car’s award-winning design but also in its belief that battery power will be the future of the automotive industry. According to researcher Roskill, production of electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) globally is expected to ramp up from roughly 2 million last year to more than 5 million by 2020. This implies huge growth in demand for lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-Ion Batteries Batteries and storage currently account for about 25% of graphite consumption, but lithium-ion batteries are widely seen as the main growth driver for the graphite market over the coming decade. Industrial Minerals Magazine forecasts that global graphite demand will increase 9% annually to 2020 to more than 2.5 million tonnes vs only 3% annual growth without batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are smaller, lighter and more powerful than traditional batteries. They also have little ‘memory effect’, which means they don’t progressively lose their maximum charge, and have a low rate of discharge when not in use. As a result, most consumer devices, such as laptops and cell phones, use lithium-ion batteries as do virtually all EVs and HEVs. Graphite is the anode material (the positive charge) in the battery and there are few substitutes. So-called natural ‘flake’ graphite, which has higher purity levels, is the main source of what can be used economically in lithium-ion batteries. Synthetic graphite substitutes do exist but they tend to be less effective and less economic particularly as battery sizes increase (a car battery can weigh 1,000 lbs or more, for example). Synthetic graphite is a labour-intensive process that involves applying extreme heat to burn off impurities and can cost three or four times that of natural graphite. Natural graphite remains easily the most cost effective anode material. According to Transparency Market Research, the global lithium-ion battery market was worth US$11.7 bln in 2012 and is expected to reach US$33.1 bln in 2019, growing at a CAGR of 14.4%. The lithium-ion battery market received major positive news in mid-March 2014 when Tesla announced it would be building, somewhere in the US, a massive battery factory (a 10-million square ft. ‘Gigafactory’) that would be the world’s largest, capable of producing enough lithium-ion batteries by 2020 to outfit 500,000 electric cars (Tesla’s 2014 production is forecast by management to be roughly 35,000). This has created a buzz throughout the lithium sector, but roughly 20x more graphite is used in a lithium-ion battery than lithium itself so the longer-term impact may be greater for the graphite market. Some analysts have called Tesla’s announcement game-changing for the battery industry. account for about 25% of graphite consumption, but lithium-ion batteries are widely seen as the main growth driver for the graphite market over the coming decade. Industrial Minerals Magazine forecasts that global graphite demand will increase 9% annually to 2020 to more than 2.5 million tonnes vs only 3% annual growth without batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are smaller, lighter and more powerful than traditional batteries. They also have little ‘memory effect’, which means they don’t progressively lose their maximum charge, and have a low rate of discharge when not in use. As a result, most consumer devices, such as laptops and cell phones, use lithium-ion batteries as do virtually all EVs and HEVs. Graphite is the anode material (the positive charge) in the battery and there are few substitutes. So-called natural ‘flake’ graphite, which has higher purity levels, is the main source of what can be used economically in lithium-ion batteries. Synthetic graphite substitutes do exist but they tend to be less effective and less economic particularly as battery sizes increase (a car battery can weigh 1,000 lbs or more, for example). Synthetic graphite is a labour-intensive process that involves applying extreme heat to burn off impurities and can cost three or four times that of natural graphite. Natural graphite remains easily the most cost effective anode material. According to Transparency Market Research, the global lithium-ion battery market was worth US$11.7 bln in 2012 and is expected to reach US$33.1 bln in 2019, growing at a CAGR of 14.4%. The lithium-ion battery market received major positive news in mid-March 2014 when Tesla announced it would be building, somewhere in the US, a massive battery factory (a 10-million square ft. ‘Gigafactory’) that would be the world’s largest, capable of producing enough lithium-ion batteries by 2020 to outfit 500,000 electric cars (Tesla’s 2014 production is forecast by management to be roughly 35,000). This has created a buzz throughout the lithium sector, but roughly 20x more graphite is used in a lithium-ion battery than lithium itself so the longer-term impact may be greater for the graphite market. Some analysts have called Tesla’s announcement game-changing for the battery industry. Peter