Why Graphite Is The New Gold As Tech Wars Ramp Up | Risky Business
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- Опубликовано: 6 июн 2024
- One of Sri Lanka's oldest mines holds valuable deposits of graphite - a critical mineral that makes up the largest part of EV batteries. But even though the country produces the world's purest form, experts say Sri Lanka isn't a global competitor. So what can the country do to rise up and meet the skyrocketing demand?
Editor's Note: A previous version of this video incorrectly stated that the graphite deposits in Sri Lanka are 2,500 years old.
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00:00 - Intro
00:56 - A Way Of Life In Sri Lanka
01:36 - Going Down The Elevator
02:16 - Mining 2,000 Feet Underground
02:41 - Blasting Rocks With Dynamite
04:09 - The Challenges Of Mining
05:23 - History Of Sri Lanka's Graphite
05:57 - China Enters The Graphite Game
06:04 - Processing Vein Graphite In Sri Lanka
06:31 - Graphite Industry In Sri Lanka Vs. China
07:00 - Graphite's Role In EV Batteries
07:31 - China's Monopoly On Graphite
08:01 - China's Graphite Restrictions & The US
08:29 - Potential Of Sri Lanka's Graphite
08:49 - Working In The Kahatagaha Mine
09:28 - A Humble Lifestyle
10:07 - Credits
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#graphite #mining #insidernews
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Plunging 2,000 Feet Underground For A Critical Mineral: Graphite | Risky Business | Insider News
Its a shame that pretty much all over the world miners are paid extremely low but yet the entire world is dependent on them.
In countries like Canada and Australia, miners are very well paid. And they have powerful political lobbies.
People like to complain about how much the workers are payed, and they are payed exactly or close to the rate the mineral is worth. You don't understand the cost behind the logistic of transporting that stuff across the world. If they payed miners nearly the price of every kilo of graphite, there wouldn't be any money to be made. In fact, most Americans are already use to this. Do you think you make anywhere near what your boss makes HA! Not even close. Stop being a care bear for once in your life and think with your head. Supply and demand, rise and fall, as do the logistic costs of minerals.
@@haxonprime1243Dumba## they can definitely pay the miners more just like how other countries do but that will cut into the politicians and billionaires profit, that’s how billionaires get rich by exploiting the poor and needy.
@@haxonprime1243to be fair, a lot of these people have a lower standard of living in design so wealthier countries can prosper more. thats the point
@@waylonjennings5063 My point is that people "assume" these people live in poverty, and that just isn't true. America has blue collar workers, they make enough to live, that's it. The same applies to this country. They make enough to get by. That's the point of labor work. People that feel bad for them should also feel bad for the rest of the people ALL OVER THE WORLD working hard labor jobs just to pay their bills and buy food.
These bleeding heart snowflakes kill me man. They just don't understand how the world works and it's irritating.
Blessed with natural resources but cursed by politicians- so Sri Lanka
Politicians are the worst in Srilanka😢 if they work for the country then this country can be very developed like Singapore but much better with all the natural beutiful places it has and with that the tourist industry also would bloom❤
Well people elected them.
@@ws1814 as a sri lankan I fully agree
@@ws1814because old people in sri lanka didnt have much political knowledge
As the people so the leader
this father is such a great dad, respect for his hard work, such an exemple for many, he has a hard life but does it for his familly
Ditto
And western women hate fathers
Well he has to no option???
I wonder how there lungs are.
The women processing the graphite by hand wearing hardhats with bare feet are just killing me.
American moment
Head is more important than feet when it comes to swinging axes
Is it toxic
I'm sure they're wearing a hard hats just for the video
@angelwu86 no. Same as graphite in your pencil. Although maybe the dust is in terms of getting into lungs like coal?
I think this is an amazing economic opportunity for Sri Lanka. Let's go!
lmao you'd wish
But govern by thieves
Do you mean oil 🛢?
i am in here with... literally wtf... grapghite for batteries
And yet the government doesn’t invest in better equipment in the mines that it owns
Sri Lanka is broke.
Yet if the government invested in the mines, it could make a lot of money… short-sightedness.
corruption
@@whatsfordinner1695 No actually atm the country is bankrupt but the economy is growing fast again with the end of Covid boom so they intend to invest into improving the mines.
@@whatsfordinner1695 No more like the western world looted Sri Lanka and all of their valuable resources since the colonial times and now preach about corruption which is induced by western and other foreign superpowers in the first place
Such a good father to work so hard so his son can go to school and for a better future.
I really hope Sri Lanka doesn't get ripped off .
The political parties are there to rip the locals off
@ZebbMassiv Commodities more or less have the same market value throughout the whole world. Meaning, you cant get "ripped off". You get paid what its worth as of the market value.
Too late
Jesus boss, spend a few cents and get those women some gloves.
Actually atm the country is bankrupt but the economy is growing fast again with the end of Covid tourist boom (33% of the country is dependent on tourism) so they intend to invest into improving the mines with the new revenue.
Bro that’s what the graphite was for, lead obviously was more harmful… ☠️ jokes
She was wearing gloves, they were graphite 😂
@@crypticTVIts the pentup growth, not a long term one. Sri Lanka isn't very diversified & their last govt was basically a chinese puppet!
The real problem is there isn't any women working "in the mine".
GENDER EQUALITY FOR WOMEN!
It wasn’t used to make cannon balls, it was used to line molds as a lubricant for things like cannon balls.
Thanks, I knew it couldn't be correct but was too lazy to Google how it was really used
@@gadaadhoon Same, lol.
The main guy Neil is a happy man, just like any middle class, work sucks, pay sucks but coming home, doing some gardening barefoot and hang out with the fambam makes it worth it
He isn't middle class but it sounds like he hopes his kids might reach that.
middle class???? what. What country are you from? Hes working class.
If you are homeless you are 3rd in every country middle class is someone who has a roof
Not really worth it
Not worth it, your delusional
$100 a month, I FEEL SORRY FOR THESE MINERS
min wage in sri lanka is ~40 dollars/month
@@pezjerk6334😮😮😮😮wtf its even ultra max pro level low ! Even India's poorest state Bihar have lowest salary over 120 $ a month 😮 !
Even though Sri Lanka I heard on paper have higher GDP per capita ! Even after all this India's living cost also so so low how tf those people's survive with that much money 😢
Westerners talking about feeling sorry for all the products they enjoyed from slave labour, what hypocrisy
Bro,here in Sri Lanka average meal cost around 1$. Trasportation cost for 10km is around 0.5$. I know it is still much low. But don't compare with KFC Chicken price in some western country.
@@svanimation8969 As a Sri lankan I've never heard such thing.If we take a blue collar job like mason, they charge around 10$/day. In urban areas this is around 15$_20$/day.
Brave souls. SL is a beautiful country, but there safety needs to improve greatly.
These poor people working so hard to earn pennies while the corporations make billions off their labor.
And they dont give these poor workers any better equipment 😢 These working conditions are horrendous... where is the trickle down economy ?
It's the same in every country. You don't see Bezos and Musk paying their line workers $500K either.
@@davidmccarthy6061 yeah same for every country? Why doesn't the west ruin their environments or why do the west dump their wastes on poorer third world countries then? It's hypocritical for westerners to talk like they know everything
@@davidmccarthy6061 Bezos and Musks are colonial oligarchs who get away with a lot of crap so that western countries can maintain their Empire and fueling their economy even more
@@cptnesbo 😭😭😭 those poor workers and yet westerners will never actually do anything about it cause they are too busy typing about it in their phones which come from third world countries cheap slave labours
Glad it's the purest graphite in the world, so they know they're breathing in the good stuff
I like how it’s a business RUclips channel that’s global yet uses Fahrenheit
Americans lack the ability to convert , so everyone else suffers
And prices are in dollars. Cry more.
@@laskey2175 We cry for the sheer ignorance of the Yanks and their incapability to advance
@@andysux1 👍
@@tilapiadave3234 Let me guess....The U.K. ? 82% Of the U.K.'s GDP is "service sector" and you're saying we don't "advance"..... lol ... Come back when your jokes are better than your healthcare Dave, a Long wait and not a good ending...
Sri Lankan graphite is the purest graphite on the planet.
Ehh.... there is no such thing as pure and impure graphite. Even if it's mixed with another mineral, separation is easy at the factories. It's ok to be proud and boast if you are a Sri Lankan, but don't make up fake information to justify it....
Clarification it wasn't used as cannonballs it was used in the cannonball mould to make the ball smoother and thus fly straighter.
Thanks, I was wondering. I knew that carbon black was a steel alloying element. So I wondered why they would add expensive graphite.
So sad only $3.50 cents a day wages
In America that’s one gallon of gas to get you work but not home.
its not dynamite. Nobody uses dynamite for mining nowadays. that looks like ANFO.
"EVs are so good for the environment"
**a insider news video suddenly appears**
Anything that gives China and advantages bad for the environment
Still better then oil sorry gas as the things we use to make the air um cleaner it starts emitting heavy and light metals in the air so small it can directly enter the brain.
Don't believe me there's lots oof reports on it.
Everything that has to do with energy is bad for the environment. That's the ugly truth.
Best thing for the environment is to not use personal vehicles as much as possible. Second best thing is EVs. Not because they don’t cause damage but because over the lifetime of their ownership they will cause less damage than an ICE car. But your puny brain can’t handle more than a single Fox News headline’s worth of information
@@kumarj4693Civilization is a Holocaust Machine
You don’t know what you are talking about , they do not inject water in the walls to stabilise them . The water is to stop the dust when drilling .
A lot of things said in the video is completely wrong. No research or fact checking done at all.
Neil... great man❤
If the government is stable enough in Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 then I bet investors will take the opportunity to industrialize some of those mines to meet market demand
Didn't happen in the past won't happen now or the future
5:39 that's when SL govt, pro-socialist at the time did wrong. Not just graphite, many industries were screwed at this time.
These can be so depressing. I appreciate what I have so much.
Sounds like Sri Lanka needs to invest a massive amount of money to modernize its graphite mines!
If the politicians actually invested money in assets and not for white elephant projects we'd be puppeting china
They cant even feed themselves let alone safety being 1st priority
do you really know it?/ they never had food shortages even 2022 crisis two years ago, sri lanka only focus on renewable energy heavily thats the problem , sri lanka investing for reduce expenses but not for gain more revenues@@billlam7756
@@billlam7756 Most of the western media show that the sri lankan has food crisis
I don't agree with it they can feed
Cause still 80% of sri lankan live in villages
Most of them have large gardens so they have plantations for their consuption
It's only for most for people in urban areas
And every villages in sri lanka have electricity,water and public infrastructure what they need
@@nimanthaathisvara6446 eating dirt and grass is not food. Safety concern in your country is at the very bottom
Damn, I didn't know mining graphite in Sri Lanka is that dangerous.
It's only that dangerous because there are fewer regulations there, so the boss or employers can skimp out on a lot and force the workers to use outdated equipment and tools.
Honestly infuriated to the point I'm speechless. We still have the resources and even the capability to become a developed country yet we are living in this dump
What happened to all the other mineral graphite producers, Brazil, Madagascar, India.....? They were conveniently forgotten? What about synthetic graphite production from petcoke, coal tar residues, lignin and recycling?
I went to look this up, Sri Lanka produces like 19 times more grapite.
@charliemcgee9803
production figures for natural graphite in metric tonnes for the year 2022:-
China. 850,000
Mozambique 170,000
Madagascar 110,000
Brazil 87,000
Russia 15,000
Canada 15,000
Norway 10,000
India 8,300
North Korea 8,100
Tanzania 8,000
Vietnam 5,000
Sri Lanka 2,792 ( in 2023 )
Sri Lanka is not even in the top 10.
Sigh, did you not listen to what they stated. They have the *** purest***.
@@markfudger5267 Most of this is low quality graphite that has to be processed. Sri Lanka has the purest and best.
@@markfudger5267 typo, meant to say 19 times less than brazil.
Low wages and dangerous conditions will most likely lead to serious health consequences in their later lives.
Don't be such a wimp.
@@realDunalTrimpok
800 tonnes a year? Is that right? Doesn't sound like enough to justify such a big operation.
850,000 tonnes
Lol the feed fluid into the wall...to stabilise it.... More like they are drilling the hole and the water is to keep the dust down
0:40 For that they need best equipments and machinary
There is no fluid injected into walls before dynamite, that was just the cutting fluid used to cool the bit and clear cuttings.
That's the best part, he never deny the education for his children...
Tons of Graphite in Canada.
Thunder Bay, Ontario
Lake head? More like lake lead...pencil lead that is.
@@drmodestoesq Very large, very concentratee Graphite surface deposit just west of Thunder Bay, near Kekabeca Falls.
So much respect for this Man!
they got ancient tv, that such a nostalgic throwback 😭👍🏻
Why aren't they wearing eye protection? This is mind boggling.
Biggest mine in the world, Mozambique, owned by Syrah Resources (Australia). In South Australia, Renascor Resources has control of a near surface deposit that is the world's second largest KNOWN deposit. They were going to start it as a mime BUT HAVEN'T because the graphite prices are too low still
Can’t be good breathing in all that graphite dust 😢
The real problem is there isn't any women working "in the mine".
GENDER EQUALITY FOR WOMEN!
Those guys are skilled miners . We owe them a lot
This video is full of less-than-factual narrations throughout the entire video. It was obvious in the mine scene where the narrator says the worker used a drill "to inject water and stabilize the rock", which he just plain isn't - he's drilling holes in the rock using a water-damped drill to keep rock dust from killing him. The "wires" on the "dynamite" were lit with a naked flame and are obviously fuses, not wires. How many other things can we find wrong with this video?
"and the deposits are over 2,500 years old!" uhhhh, you don't say?!? I think ya forgot a word in there, like, MILLION. The deposit is over 2,500 MILLION years old, or 2.5 billion years old. Maybe next time the reporter can do just a skosh more research for the piece than simply reading bad copy verbatim off the "ceylongraphite" publicity website?
Anyway, to all the pseudo-environmentalists in the comments whining about how "bad" electric cars are for the environment because of this: there is nothing special about graphite, it's just carbon, and it's been known for decades how to produce it synthetically from literally any other carbon source by simple heating. It's merely cheaper to mine presently.
Carbon for battery,carbon bad must reduce the carbon, think the carbon wanted reduction is humanity in the end game👍
I'm disgusted by the exploitation of workers, paying them almost nothing for dangerous work while the CEOs make millions. Such a cruel world we live in
@tarekz9992 Srilankan CEOs dont make "millions".
Thank to these guys for letting us have pencils
Fascinating
I can tell just from looking thats super pure.
It's weird I assumed graphite was a lot more of a common mineral around the world..
Correction : graphite is not use to pass electricity but its usd to insulate to two electrodes from fusing together! In batteries, it is used as a barrier to seprate aluminum and copper plates, which conduct electricity.
Wrong, the paper separator is used for insulating the electrodes, graphite is used in single use cells to increase conductivity of metal oxides and in rechargeable batteries like lithium ion batteries to hold the lithium ions and also to increase conductivity.
What are you even talking about “two halves from fusing together” and “barrier to separate aluminum and copper plates” did you just take a look at a picture of a battery cell and make assumptions?
There are materials that coat the aluminium and copper plates to make the actual battery.
"They inject fluid into the wall to help stabilize it"😂 Insider News needs to hire new interpreters
small silver lining, at least the wheels on the mine carts are self lubricating
Wow thats cool 😮
you don't want to be breathing that dust in 😂
Such a beautiful place.
Fascinating sight. Isn't graphite rather abundant? A producer in the 3000 ton weight class can't pick up the slack after an 850000 ton giant...
"Inject fluid into the walls" 🤣
Respect to all those making a living honestly and immense risk.
It's a FALLING DEMAND as graphite is so worthless that the biggest mine in the world, in Africa is LOSING MONEY on it. Syrah Resources in Mozambique, an Australian owned company.
At least they're using modern techniques, unlike the usual processes featured here. Sometimes the miners don't even have ladders.
I didnt knew Sri lanka has the purest Graphite ...
Seems like now is a good time to invest in domestic graphite resources like NMG and Novonix
Neil is a wonderful father and provider 💯
You would think the US would invest in these companies beneficial to both. We upgrade the mines for them, we get better quantities.
I have been in the Mining Industry in Western Australia for over 40 years. I recognize and know how to use most of the machinery used in this video. Holman (silver 3??) rock drills are great machines and Ingersol Rand hoists are commonplace around the world. Nothing wrong with your mine, however I might upgrade the clothing and yes the wages could be better
Sri Lanka has resources but don't invest in them
Proud to be a srilankan ❤❤
will the need for graphite lead to reopening old coal mines? or is coal unsuitable for use as graphite?
they should hevily invest in graphite mineing in that country buying a machine to automate the crushing sorting and packaging and then modernizeing the mine with new equipment and teqniqea with improve production and efficiently it will pay of 10 fold and make sri lanka a large boost to its gdp
This is crazy, so dangerous
So how do i invest in graphite?
Welp.. Say goodbye to pencils kids.
This is why I've always said mining is one of the hardest jobs out there!
"Experts say" means politicians
Using dynamite whilst still in the mine is wild
This is like the Lord of the Rings movie, where the orcs defile the earth to make their weapons and industry. All for batteries to save the Earth.
also dwarfs
you can't compare orcs to white people
that's racist
Gogo Sri Lanka.
These people need more respect
breathing this stuff can't be good.
Respect for this father, 2 jobs, helping kids with homework
I believe the fluid acts as a weak blast prohibitor. If every nook and cranny inside the wall is full of water, the explosion will be more powerful as it cant escape through seams. Water or not it's a big boom.
Your channel is great but please include some function so that we who don't understand feet, mile, farhrenheit etc still can enjoy the video without googling converters.
Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback!
Learn the conversions instead of being spoon fed and you will be happier in the end than being given information we all should know.
@@jeffl6324 sure I agree that it is good to learn the conversion. Although you cannot expect everyone to learn the imperial way of measuring immediately.
Having the units in metric will allow a greater amount of viewers relate to the content. Only three countries in the world still uses the imperial system and that is the US, Myanmar and Liberia. This is a very small part of the worlds population.
@@jeffl6324 Good luck expanding any business with that mindset. And what do you mean by "information we ALL should know"? Literally 99% of countries in this world uses the metric system, celsius, etc.
First time from indonesian🇲🇨
Even though I am living in Sri Lanka I didn't know the this story.😂😂
I was wondering why everyone was stealing my pencils in school, now I know.
love how they got helmets but no eye protection in the begining
Insider News intentionally didn't mention that China started asking a license to companies that export graphite because of a US-led campaign (that includes the US, Japan and SK) to restrict the access of China to semiconductor technology (restrict the purchase of chips by chinese companies by requiring a license)
Interesting that they use the "Milpa" system of Crop production developed in Ancient Mexico thousands of years ago including Maize (Zea mays) beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and Squash (Curcubita pepo).
No masks , shoes or gloves but hey !!!!! Hard hats
Missing hearing protection too 😵
Our country is poor. What to expect
Countries like Sri Lanka should sell these minerals at a premium price for the benefit if it's people. And also improve its mining infrastructures.
They dont use dynamite. It hasnt been used in mines since the 60s
Graphite can also be made by Carbon Capture Technology, that actively captures CO² from the atmosphere and dissociates it in to graphite and pure oxygen that could be released. That technology could reverse global warming.
Its not the quantity. Its the cost
*you mean 609,6 meters
609.6
No proper ventilation? WTF!
Inhaling all that graphite dust is extremely bad for these people, I feel so bad that they are not given any means of protecting their health.
Their face speaks it all 😢
😢
Anyone with knowledge is graphite available in Southern Africa. I wanna get in to the game
You shouldn’t pull it out of the ground think about how much hotter it’s gonna get in that area now
HAHA, first time I've heard a drill is used to inject fluid into a wall! The water serves as a lubricant, a dust repellant and a way to transport the dust out of the hole. It most definitely does not stabilize it in any way.