Zenyatta; Test Results from Dr. Arao (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan) Reveal Easy & High-Yield Conversion of Albany Graphite to Graphene Supporting Positive Results from Israel and Canada

Thunder Bay, ON

30 November 2016

Zenyatta Ventures Ltd. (“Zenyatta” or “Company”) (TSXV: ZEN) announces that Dr. Yoshihiko Arao and Professor Masatoshi Kubouchi at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (‘Tokyo Tech’) in Japan demonstrated the ease and high-yield conversion of Albany graphite to graphene. 

The results from Dr. Arao also endorse an outcome announced in the Company’s news release dated 16 May 2016 from Dr. Oren Regev, (Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel).  Dr. Regev stated that they regularly use various types of commercially available natural flake graphite, but found Albany graphite to easily exfoliate under sonication and with much higher yields of graphene nano-particles than any other natural graphite types that were tested.

Dr. Arao, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tokyo Tech, stated “Zenyatta’s high-purity graphite material was tested by our scientific team on mechanical conversion to graphene and discovered it converted much easier and with higher yields of graphene than our reference material. We have tested many types of natural graphite but found Zenyatta’s graphite material to have better exfoliation performance and produce better graphene particles than the reference material. We believe that this is an unique material and we would like to carry out further collaborative work with Zenyatta on graphene applications.”

Tokyo Tech is the top national university for science and technology in Japan with a history spanning more than 130 years. It is the largest institution for higher education in Japan dedicated to science and technology, and is considered to be one of the most prestigious universities in Japan and the world.  Tokyo Tech continues to develop global leaders in the fields of science and technology, and contributes to the betterment of society through its research, focusing on solutions to global issues. The Institute's long-term goal is to become the world's leading science and technology university.

Dr. Bharat Chahar, VP of Market Development for Zenyatta stated, “It is very important to receive further independent confirmation from Tokyo Tech of the superior performance of Albany graphite’s conversion to graphene. The obstacle to widespread use of graphene since discovery is the high manufacturing cost.  A lower-cost and disruptive approach is to use high-purity natural graphite, like Albany material, as the starting point to get high yields of graphene.  We are eager to start another phase of testing at a world class facility like Tokyo Tech using our high-purity graphite material for various innovative graphene applications.”

Earlier this year the Company also announced in a news release dated 27 January 2016 positive results from Dr. Aicheng Chen, (Professor of Chemistry and Canada Research Chair in Materials and Environmental Chemistry at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada) related to the production of graphene oxide. Dr. Chen’s results indicated that high quality graphene oxide can easily be produced from Albany graphite. Additionally, the graphene oxide produced can be converted to graphene via a simple reduction process with a very high yield. 

Zenyatta continues to develop its unique Albany graphite deposit in Ontario, Canada.  The Company’s highly crystalline graphite deposit is situated 30 km north of the Trans-Canada Highway, power line and natural gas pipeline near the communities of Constance Lake First Nation and Hearst.  A rail line is located 70 km away with an all-weather road approximately 10 km from the graphite deposit.  The world trend is to develop products for technological applications that need extraordinary performance using ultra-high purity graphite powder at an affordable cost. High-purity and highly crystalline graphite material is gaining prominence in the cleantech sector at a time when Zenyatta discovered an extremely rare igneous hosted, fluid derived graphite deposit.  Albany graphite can be upgraded with very good crystallinity without the use of aggressive acids (hydrofluoric) or high temperature thermal treatment.

Dr. Bharat Chahar, P.E., VP Market Development for Zenyatta, is a Qualified Person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed, prepared and supervised the preparation of the technical information in this news release. To find out more on Zenyatta Ventures Ltd. or graphene and its end-use markets, please visit the website www.zenyatta.ca or contact the Company at info@zenyatta.ca or Tel. 807-346-1660.

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