Flinders Resources (CVE:FDR) said its Swedish subsidiary, Woxna Graphite, is part of a group of companies chosen to promote the Swedish graphite industry.
Svenskt Grafen (in English, Swedish Graphene) is a program funded by the Swedish government to research and commercialize the production of grapheme from graphite sourced from Sweden, and Woxna will be an industry partner to the initiative.
With a production-ready, fully-permitted graphite mine and processing facility, Woxna is the natural partner for this program, Flinders said.
Flinders's partner in Swedish Graphene is 2D Fab, a company spun-off from Mittuniversitetet (Mid Sweden University), which has been conducting graphene research for many years.
The pair will form the first two links in the graphite-to-graphene value chain, Flinders said.
The partners will seek support from Swedish industry to evaluate the grapheme produced from Swedish graphite, and its use in printing, energy and surface treatment applications.
Three million layers of graphene would be just one millimeter thick; it is highly conductive and can be 100 times stronger than steel and it is those properties (and potential uses) that have investors and industrialists excited.
"This announcement represents an exciting milestone for Flinders, placing the company at the forefront of one of the fast-moving areas of new materials research,” said Blair Way, president and chief executive officer of Flinders.
“The European Union and Sweden are global leaders in the research and development of graphene, with a significant research history and very substantial future funding. Sweden is highly regarded as a technology-driven industrial economy, and SIO Grafen cements Sweden's position as a sustainable leader in the development and commercialization of grapheme,” Way added.
Way said the Swedish Graphene project completes the third link of Flinders’s strategy to position Woxna as a leading supplier to the current and future graphite and graphene industries.
“Woxna has produced and sold flake graphite to the traditional refractory sector, and is currently researching the production of high purity graphite product with Chinese technology suppliers," he noted.
Woxna has already mined and milled in excess of 1,000 tonnes of natural flake graphite since restarting the facility last year. High grade large flake concentrate has already been shipped to 2D Fab.
Test work on the Swedish graphite-to-graphene process has already commenced, with 2D Fab running Woxna natural flake graphite concentrate through its unique and sustainable technology that has the ability to produce graphene from natural flake graphite, water and minimal energy.
Shares in Flinders Resources were up 6.35 at 34 cents in lunchtime trading.