282 



UNITED STATES MINERAL RESOURCES 



Table 55, — Identified' and hypothetical' graphite resources 

 of the world 



Locality Quantity 



Rock containinfiT at least 4 percent srraphitic carbon as flake graphite 



North America: 



Canada >1 million tons. 



United States Millions of tons. 



South America: 



Argentina A million tons(7) 



Brazil Millions of tons. 



Europe: 



Austria Hundreds of thousands of tons. 



Finland Less than 1 million tons. 



France Do. 



West Germany Several million tons. 



Italy A few hundred thousand tons. 



Norway Do. 



Spain Do. 



Sweden Tens of miLions of tons. 



Asia: 



U.S.S.R. Hundreds of millions of tons. 



Ceylon Hundreds of thousands of tons. 



China Probably at least millions of tons. 



India Hundreds of thousands of tons. 



Japan A million ton3(?) 



Korea , Many millions of tons. 



Turkey Tens of thousands of tons (7) 



Africa: 



Kenya Hundreds of thousands of tons. 



Malagasy Republic Many hundreds of millions of tons, in many 



districts, in an area 100 by 600 mOes. 



Tanzania Hundreds of thousands of tons(7) 



Uganda Small. 



Zambia Possibly millions of tons. 



Australia: 



South Australia Possibly millions of tons. 



Amorphoas graphite in deposits containing aboot 85 percent 

 graphitic carbon 



North America: 



Canada Considerable graphite in eastern Canada is 



too fine grained to be marketed as flake. 

 Total reserves may be several million tons, 

 mostly low grade. 



Mexico Hundreds of millions of tons, containing BO- 

 SS percent graphite. 



United States A few thousand tons of 80—85 percent graph- 

 ite. Byproduct fine material from flake 

 graphite deposits — possibly several thousands 

 of tons. 

 Alaska — byproduct, millions of tons that would 

 require upgrading. 

 Europe: 



Austria Hundreds of millions of tons. 



Czechoslovakia Millions of tons. 



West Germany Hundreds of thousands of tons. 



Sweden Two hundred million tons. 



Asia: 



U.S.S.R, Tens of millions of tons. Good quality. 



China Probably many millions of tons, possibly 



many tens of millions of tons. 



Hong Kong Thousands or tens of thousands of tons. 



India Possibly thousands of tons. 



Japan Tens of thousands of tons. 



Korea Hundreds of millions of tons. 



Africa: 



Morocco A few million tons. 



Southwest Africa Thousands of tons(?) 



Australia: 



Queensland MUlions of tons. 



Vein graphite in veins consisting of at least 90 percent graphite 



United States Less than 10.000 tons. 



Brazil Occurrences are reported. Details are un- 

 available. 



U.S.S.R. Large deposits are reported west of Irkutsk, 



in eastern Siberia. 



Ceylon The major world supply of vein-type graph- 

 ite is believed to be here. Total reserves are 

 only estimates from millions of tons to pos- 

 sibly tens or hundreds of millions of tons. 



China Vein-type deposits are reported. Reserves may 



range from thousands to millions of tons. 



^ Specific, identified mineral deposits that may or may not be evaluated 

 as to extent and grade, and whose contained minerals may or may not be 

 profitably recoverable with existing technology and economic conditions. 



2 Undiscovered mineral deposits, whether of recoverable or subeconomic 

 grade, that are geologically predictable as existing in known districts. 



and this area should be explored for possible deposits 

 of vein graphite. Few details are known about the 

 veins of graphite reported in China, the U.S.S.R., 



and Brazil, and their commercial potential is still 

 mostly unevaluated, 



SPECULATIVE RESOURCES 



The geology of the Eastern United States is so 

 well known that the likelihood of finding new de- 

 posits of flake graphite closer to market is very 

 small. Igneous activity in the coal fields of the 

 United States either did not occur or was of a scale 

 small enough to preclude the chances of finding 

 amorphous graphite deposits of commercial size and 

 grade. Certainly none found are likely to rival the 

 size and grade of the great deposits of Sonora, 

 Mexico. 



PROSPECTING 



The simplest and most eflfective means of finding 

 graphite is to look for it in outcrops and residual 

 soil. Because of its chemical inertness, graphite 

 remains completely unaltered in weathered material ; 

 and the dark, lustrous flakes are conspicuous in 

 surface soil. 



As in prospecting for any mineral, a knowledge 

 of areal geology of the area is the first step in 

 prospecting for graphite. Flake graphite occurs only 

 in metamorphic rocks — commercial sizes generally 

 in schists and gneisses of garnet grade or higher or 

 in marbles associated with other metasediments. 

 Amorphous graphite forms only by thermal meta- 

 morphism of coal; therefore, areas to prospect are 

 those where coal-bearing sediments may have been 

 intruded by igneous rock. Vein graphite is so rare 

 and its origin is so poorly understood that it is 

 difficult to characterize the most favorable places to 

 prospect. Most known graphite veins cut Precam- 

 brian igneous and metamorphic rocks, although a 

 few are known to be in younger metamorphic rocks 

 as well. 



PROBLEMS FOR RESEARCH 



Little effort with modem tools has gone into the 

 geologic study of graphite deposits in the United 

 States recently, chiefly because most of the known 

 deposits were considered noncommercial, reason- 

 ably priced graphite has been available continuously 

 from foreign sources, and synthetic graphite has 

 acquired a large share of the market. Better tech- 

 niques to beneficiate the low-grade ores are needed 

 if a domestic industry is to be viable. Studies on 

 the nature of formation of graphite veins might 

 aid considerably the science of ore deposits as well 

 as the search for more graphite deposits. The role 

 of organic matter in metamorphism and hydrother- 

 mal ore deposits is not well understood. 



