Graphite One Resources Inc. Dec. 7 reported that it is nearing the completion of a preliminary economic assessment for its Graphite Creek project near Nome, Alaska.

Raising more than C$2.8 million, the company has achieved a number of major milestones in 2016.

These milestones were reached during a comprehensive product development program managed by TRU Group Inc., a technology metals consultant with expertise along the entire graphite-graphene supply chain. This program produced purified graphite from Graphite Creek averaging 99.98 percent graphitic carbon.

When TRU Group first began examining Graphite Creek material late in 2014, its technicians recognized distinguishing features they described as spheroidal, thin, aggregate and expanded. The graphite specializing consultant postulated that these distinctive characteristics could lend to different specialized applications with minimal processing. These unique and naturally occurring properties have prompted Graphite One to apply for the trademark, STAX, an acronym to describe Graphite Creek graphite.

Further testing found that more than 74 percent of the STAX flake graphite could be turned into spherical graphite without milling.

This is a monumental achievement considering that only about 40 percent of the best-performing flake graphite found in any other known deposit can be converted to spherical graphite, even using high-end equipment.

In later phases of testing completed this year, TRU Group measured the performance of the spheroidized graphite produced from STAX material in coin cells typically used in watches and similar devices.

This testing confirmed high performance, repeatability and stability of the spherical graphite produced from the western Alaska deposit - all indicators of high-quality graphite for lithium-ion batteries.

Graphite One and Tru Group are working on the production of exploratory grade samples of coated, spherical graphite for testing by potential end-users.

"Our program indicated the unique characteristics of our STAX natural flake graphite, which more than met our expectations for performance on the key metrics for spherical graphite," said Graphite One CEO Anthony Huston. "Our goal for Graphite One is to become a reliable producer of high-quality graphite for the rapidly evolving energy and high-tech sectors."

Graphite One said a preliminary economic assessment for the Graphite Creek project, a milestone originally slated for the end of 2016, is now targeted for completion by the end of January 2017.

-SHANE LASLEY