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Grade and tonnage data for disseminated flake graphite deposits

Metadata Updated: January 22, 2026

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.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date January 12, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 22, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 12, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 22, 2026
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_65942760d34e3265ab14f6c5
Data Last Modified 2024-04-23T00:00:00Z
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://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-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
Datagov Dedupe Retained 20260121204831
Harvest Object Id 12e7df06-4ebf-4fa6-b73c-c45d4a752342
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
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Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash d5d56a7a6c814b77c038a05d38b058ca95a94c7fc43f28fbaa5f9308f0d34365
Source Schema Version 1.1
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