Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Grade and tonnage data for disseminated flake graphite deposits

Metadata Updated: July 20, 2024

Crystalline graphite is a primary material in lithium-ion battery anodes which are essential in moving towards green energy. Forecasts for 2040 anticipate an order of magnitude increase in graphite demand driven by sustainable development policies to reduce carbon emissions. Domestic production of graphite ceased in the 1980s after a steady decline post-World War I, meaning the United States relies on natural graphite imports from producers such as China or high-cost synthetic graphite. The current crystalline graphite flake model was released in 1992 and used 100 sites with graphite production. The updated grade and tonnage model uses 72 graphite sites with reports of flake graphite. The updated model implies economically relevant deposits likely contain a median of 23 million metric tons (Mt) of contained graphite. Ore tonnages range from 3.1 Mt in the 10th quantile (Q10) to 170 Mt in the 90th quantile (Q90). Grades range from 3.5 wt% graphitic carbon (Cg) in Q10 to 16 wt% Cg in Q90, with a median of 7.7 wt% Cg. The updated grade and tonnage model provides essential information for evaluating domestic graphite resources and highlights the potential for mining graphite from crystalline rocks in Alabama and Alaska.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date July 20, 2024
Metadata Updated Date July 20, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date July 20, 2024
Metadata Updated Date July 20, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/f1fcdd11c40a1f25489814c48e82b9fa
Identifier USGS:65942760d34e3265ab14f6c5
Data Last Modified 20240423
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 16db2569-f3b0-4fa3-a40d-6c19f040b467
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -165.5322,-34.8027,142.208,69.496
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash fdb6c3286f1896a3cf9839c3a636d661fdadb6807d33f04082334117f8e40f5e
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -165.5322, -34.8027, -165.5322, 69.496, 142.208, 69.496, 142.208, -34.8027, -165.5322, -34.8027}

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.