Vancouver-based Canada Carbon (TSXV:CCB) kicked Tuesday off on a good note with the announcement that it’s started offtake qualification with specialty graphite processors interested in graphite from its Miller hydrothermal lump-vein historical graphite mine.

Offtake qualification requires a variety of steps, including multiple samples and increasing sample sizes, and Canada Carbon is at different stages in the process with various processors.

Graphite Investing News caught R. Bruce Duncan, CEO and executive chairman of Canada Carbon, in the midst of a busy travel day, and he was able to explain exactly what that means. ”The press release clearly speaks for itself,” he said. “Our highly differentiated graphite is becoming sought after by a wide spectrum of industry players. Canada Carbon’s graphite sets us apart.”

He’s not the only one who thinks the graphite at Miller is special. In the final few months of 2014, Canada Carbon and Miller received a lot of attention from analysts, including Luisa Moreno, Stormcrow Capital’s Jon Hykawy, and Gareth Hatch of Technology Metals Research. All of the analysts were impressed after visiting the property — Hykawy highlighted its “amazing infrastructure” — but they’ve also been blown away by its flotation results.

Explaining what exactly makes them so good, Moreno said in a report, “Canada Carbon’s preliminary pilot scale flotation tests have yielded results with good percentage recoveries of large and jumbo flakes contained in a high grade concentrate. The Company’s bench-scale flotation tests on a 50kg composite of the Miller graphite samples resulted in 40% of the graphite concentrate reporting to the +80 mesh to +32 mesh sizes (i.e., large to super-jumbo graphite flake sizes), which typically command a market premium.”

She added, “GDMS assays on pilot plant graphite concentrate, processed by flotation alone, have shown 99.3+% purity in seven particle classes, from +200 to +32 mesh.” That’s important because “the quality is comparable with that of synthetic graphite.”

In Tuesday’s release, Duncan elaborates, noting that in fact “several properties of [Miller's] natural crystalline graphite matched and even exceeded those of synthetic graphite.” While that doesn’t mean the graphite can simply be swapped out for synthetic graphite, Duncan said the company believes ”some of the qualification testing being conducted will assist in determining the applications for which our graphite can be substituted for synthetic graphite.”

All in all, it’s easy to see why graphite processors are taking an interest, and it will be interesting to watch for further updates on qualification.

Other highlights from Tuesday’s release include:

• Academic research: Canada Carbon has partnered with the University of Quebec at Montreal and McGill University on cooperative academic research and development programs.
  
• Exploration planning: The company is planning a “significant exploration program” for targets at Miller’s West Block.
• Assay results coming: Over 2,000 meters of core were recovered from drilling at the East Block this past fall, and 133 core samples have been sent to Actlabs for “precise determination of their graphite content, along with a further 23 assays based on channel and grab sampling.” Complete results from the program will be released when available.

Shares of Canada Carbon were selling for $0.21 each, up 5 percent, at close of day Tuesday.

Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Editorial Disclosure: Canada Carbon is a client of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid-for content.

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Canada Carbon’s Miller Project Attracting Analyst Attention