Latest news with #MartinMoloney
BBC News
7 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Forward Moloney signs new Exeter contract
Exeter back row Martin Moloney has signed a new contract with the Premiership 25-year-old Irishman moved to Sandy Park from Leinster last summer after a trial period in has gone on to play 15 times in all competitions, scoring three have not disclosed the length of Moloney's new deal."He was a player of growing importance across the season, and I think he was playing his best rugby for us towards the end of the campaign where he really showed his value," Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter told the club website."He had some great impacts in our final set of games in particular. "He's a guy who works exceptionally hard. He had quite a long period out of the game with little rugby, due to injury, but I think we're really starting to see him thrive now."He's one of the guys we expect to continue to get better and better over an extended period. He's the right age, the right experience level for us to keep improving."
BBC News
11-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Exeter overcome youthful Saints in scrappy contest
Gallagher PremiershipExeter (21) 42Tries: Lilley, Skinner 2, Brown-Bampoe 2, Moloney Cons: Slade 5, Hodge Northampton (7) 14Tries: Garside, Lockett Cons: James 2 Exeter Chiefs gained some late season pride with a scrappy 42-14 victory over a youthful Northampton Saints at Sandy debutant Nick Lilley and Saints' Jake Garside exchanged tries before the home side took control on the verge of half-time with scores from Harvey Skinner and Paul Lockett reduced the deficit for the Saints soon after the break, but Martin Moloney's opportunistic score put the game beyond the visitors before Brown-Bampoe and Skinner added late gloss to the result leaves the Chiefs in ninth, 12 points behind eighth-placed Saints who have only the Champions Cup left to play to follow... Exeter: Hodge; Lilley, Slade, Rigg, Brown-Bampoe; Skinner, Townsend; Sio, Yeandle, Street, Tuima, Jenkins, Vermuelen, Capstick, Frost, Blose, Iosefa-Scott, Tshiunza, Moloney, Cairns, Haydon-Wood, Rigg (21).Northampton: Garside; Cousins, Seabrook, Litchfield, Glister; James, Weimann; West, Walker, Millar Mills, Prowse, Munga, Lockett, Brown, Wright, Haffar, Green, Hunter-Hill, Logan, Benson, Witheat, Karl Dickson.
News.com.au
30-04-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Graphite slips under radar as China puts foot on critical minerals supply chain
Move over rare earths, graphite is a key critical mineral too China dominates supply, pushing governments to shore up domestic graphite These ASX stocks could be well placed to secure a spot in the supply chain Rare earths have been in the spotlight lately with the US/China tariff trade war highlighting the need for Western countries to shore up domestic supply chains, particularly around minerals critical to defence and tech applications. But one mineral that's slipped under the radar is graphite. China also has a stranglehold on global graphite supply, but that could present opportunities for ASX stocks with a near-term development projects. Graphite is crucial in lithium-ion batteries, acting as the anode material. In fact, there's more graphite in a lithium-ion battery than there is the eponymous lithium. There are plenty of Aussie players with deposits waiting for their breakout moment. Buxton Resources' (ASX:BUX) Graphite Bull project in WA is one that has the potential to be a supplier of choice for natural flake graphite for lithium-ion battery manufacturers. CEO Martin Moloney says investors have realised China has a dominant position in the supply chain. In the midst of the uncertainty in the market and China's influence on the supply chain, Buxton's approach has been to take the project as far as they can, declaring a resource, doing baseline environmental studies and essentially bringing it to a pre-scoping stage. "We looked at our graphite project and wanted to know could it work as an anode and could we make it a lot bigger,' Moloney said. 'Unequivocally, we've answered those with a resounding yes, it works particularly well as an active anode material.' He also notes that the high grade of the project, and its location in Australia are beneficial in terms of trading with the US. We're going to need both synthetic and natural Then there's the synthetics vs natural flake debate. There are pros and cons, Moloney says synthetic is good because it's consistent, and natural is also good, because it has this extra crystallinity that gives more charge density. He also reckons anode manufacturers like Chinese anode manufacturer BTR, who are undertaking qualification testwork on the company's ore, would rather have a blend of the two. But pricing might impact that. 'The prices of the feedstock for the synthetic graphite have gone through the roof, so it's going to be very difficult for synthetic graphite to remain at ... rock bottom prices,' he said. 'And so consumers, the people making the anodes, are going to start biassing more towards natural because there's this just inherent price advantage there. 'The synthetic market is also massively oversupplied, so what that has meant is that recently a lot of manufacturers of synthetic graphite in China have started falling by the wayside. 'Now, that capacity could come back online relatively quickly, but still just goes to show that the prices currently are not sustainable.' However, there's a fundamental supply deficit for natural graphite too, particularly outside of China. 'And because retail stock market punters have not been backing graphite stocks, there's this looming structural deficit in the natural graphite market,' Moloney said. 'For all the reasons, synthetic's not going to displace it and the other alternative chemistries of anodes aren't going to displace it either. 'So, the future market is kind of bright for natural graphite, particularly if you have the extra advantages of being in Australia.' But realistically, he doesn't think countries will be able to secure supply outside of China in the near-future, and then only if Governments get involved. 'It'd be great to supply a future in 10 years, but actually we need to supply our future in one year, or to buffer in the short term,' Moloney said. 'So, they're not really motivated, but if they've got Governments forcing them, like what Trump's doing with the tariffs, then government intervention is absolutely required because government intervention is basically what's created the problem in the first place.' Shore up supply chain like South Korea Renascor Resources (ASX:RNU) MD David Christensen thinks graphite's importance as a critical mineral is definitely being undervalued at the moment. The company's Siviour project in South Australia has a post-tax net present value of $1.5 billion and Renascor expects it to be one of the world's lowest cost projects, with costs of US$405/t of graphite concentrate in the first 10 years. The company is also advancing optimisation studies and is also looking to commission a purified spherical graphite (PSG) demonstration plant later this year. 'Over the last several years, China has increased its dominance in the production and refining of graphite to the point of having monopoly control of portions of the graphite supply chain,' Christensen said. 'This means that the production of EVs in the US (or any other country) is wholly dependent on China for graphite. 'The recent trade tension highlights the need for secure supply chains for graphite to ensure the EV industry can continue to grow, notwithstanding the current trade tension.' He reckons we should take a leaf out of South Korea's book with POSCO, a company primarily known for its steel manufacturing, becoming increasingly involved in the EV industry. It's been expanding and investing in that arm of the business – including cathode and anode materials, as well as producing steel for EV components. 'South Korea has been the leader outside of China in building out mid and downstream manufacturing capacity in the battery sector,' Christensen said. 'It is no surprise that POSCO is expanding its manufacturing footprint in Korea to free itself of dependence on China. 'To protect domestic manufacturing investments in the battery/EV space, I think we can expect to see similar investments outside of South Korea, including in Japan, which already has established anode producers, as well as the US and EU which have seen significant investment in battery production.' And a scramble is already on to build anode manufacturing capacity outside China. 'Whilst the equity markets have been soft for graphite (as well as other battery minerals) in recent times, we are already seeing significant ex-China expansions by anode makers, who require graphite for their operations,' Christensen said. 'The legacy ex-China anode makers in South Korea and Japan have announced major expansions, and we are seeing some of the tier-1 Chinese anode makers make major investments in Indonesia, Malaysia and Morrocco. 'The one common theme for all of these projects is that they will need graphite sourced outside of China.' Who else has a graphite play? Green Critical Minerals (ASX:GCM) The company has been steadily demonstrating the potential of its VHD Graphite technology to meet the needs of industries requiring next-generation advanced engineered graphite and thermal solutions. Its technology has consistently manufactured a product with the highest density (2071kg/m3) recorded for VHD blocks while the average density of 2011kg/m3 easily exceeds industry standard densities for nuclear graphite (1700-1900kg/m3), which is used as a high-temperature control-rod material, and electrode graphite (1550-1800kg/m3) used in batteries. Testing also found that its VHD Graphite blocks had 3x better thermal diffusivity than aluminium and graphite, 2.6x better than copper as well as a 25x directional advantage. Just last week, GCM signed a collaboration agreement with Australian data centre operator GreenSquareDC highlighting commercial interest in its very high density (VHD) graphite. Under the agreement, which is part of an ongoing targeted customer qualification and engagement program, the companies will collaborate in the development and provision of thermal management products for GreenSquareDC's data centres using VHD Graphite. Sovereign Metals (ASX:SVM) SVM has the Kasiya project in Malawi, the only known natural graphite and rutile project. In February, the company reported that testwork on its graphite either met or exceeded specifications required for use in the expandable and expanded graphite markets. The results can now be used for customer engagement and potential offtake to another two markets, where demand from flame retardants and gaskets, seals and brake linings is approaching 100,000t a year and expanding at a compound annual growth clip of 6-8%. SVM has already shown it can supply material suited for the two largest natural graphite markets, battery anodes and refractories, used in steelmaking, Plus, in January, an optimised PFS reaffirmed the project's globally strategic significance, and potential to become one of the largest and lowest-cost producer of natural rutile and natural flake graphite while generating exceptional economics. Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) is sitting in the background with a major stake of close to 20%, putting a big target on Sovereign's back. Kingsland Minerals (ASX:KNG) KNG's Leliyn project in the NT is Australia's largest graphite deposit with a resource of 194.6Mt at 7.3% total graphitic carbon. Above and beyond that is an exploration target of 700Mt to 1.1 billion tonnes at 7-8% TGC. The company recently sent a bulk sample of concentrate to Germany for extensive metallurgical tests to produce purified spherical graphite, with the results to feed into a scoping study into the production of fine flake graphite. KNG expects Leliyn to be low-cost, as the large, shallow nature of the orebody is likely to lead to a low strip ratio. Notably, the company is backed by new 15.3% shareholder Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners and together the pair are looking at developing downstream processing capacity in Darwin.
Telegraph
22-03-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Pandemonium in Bristol with record-breaking 10 tries in first half
Just another day in the utterly nutty world of Bristol Bears. This was pandemonium from start to finish: tries galore – a record-breaking 10 in the first half – end-to-end mania, a hat-trick and a red card to boot. Sets were being adjusted, punters were chaotically checking that it was not April 1, but in the end the Bears prevailed, consolidating a top-two spot in the Premiership table. Does anyone know of any cool, dark rooms in Bristol? I need a lie down. There are days when defence coaches watch from behind the sofa and then there was this. Ninety points in total and 14 tries, nine of which came inside the first half an hour – bonus points sewn up for both teams too – with five-point scores reducing in value as rapidly as Deutsch Marks in the Weimar Republic. Tackling was not optional; it became kryptonite. Ellis Genge, dropping out of the Bristol 23 on the morning of the match to welcome the birth of his daughter, his third child, must have been sitting at home wondering what on Earth was unfolding in his absence. 🗣️ "I don't think I've seen a better 16 minutes of @premrugby!" @samwarburton_ is loving it as @BristolBears run in for the SIXTH try of the game. #GallagherPrem | #BRIvEXE — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) March 22, 2025 "We're seeing a season's worth of highlights in half an hour here!" The tries keep coming and it's Josh Hodge with the brilliant football touch and finish for @ExeterChiefs 🔥 #GallagherPrem | #BRIvEXE — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) March 22, 2025 After the carnage between these two at Sandy Park last October – Bristol scored 28 points in the final 14 minutes to overturn a 20-point deficit – this sort of carry-on was written in the stars. The aggregate score between the two sides this season now reads an extraordinary 92-73 to Bristol. The Bears, staggeringly, had their own try bonus point wrapped up in 15 minutes. It took slowcoaches Exeter a further 14 to secure their bonus. Keep up, lads. In the thick of Bristol bedlam, picking out shining lights was tough but Benhard Janse van Rensburg and James Williams in the midfield looked a cut above. The madness began when Christ Tshiunza dropped the kick-off. From then, it took Bristol less than 90 seconds to get the ball on the try-line, the efficiency of which set the tone for the afternoon. Kalaveti Ravouvou caused the Chiefs problems down the left and when the ball was recycled, Jack Bates was there to dot down. Jack Bates with the second fastest try of the season as @BristolBears fly out of the blocks at Ashton Gate ⚡️ #GallagherPrem | #BRIvEXE — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) March 22, 2025 Tom Cairns's sumptuous timing of the pass sent Martin Moloney through close to a Bristol ruck as Exeter responded, but Joe Owens caught the ensuing restart and Williams was under the sticks in the blink of an eye. Exeter Chiefs also find the tryline early ⏰ Martin Moloney flies under the posts to even it up. #GallagherPrem | #BRIvEXE — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) March 22, 2025 Again, Exeter replied. Ben Coen, fresh out of a leading role with England's under-20s during their own Six Nations, found Josh Hodge with a cross-field kick and the wing offloaded neatly for Henry Slade to score. It was already silly, but following Slade's score, Janse van Rensburg caught Bristol's own restart and scooted away untouched for a try of his own. Bristol had their lead back and when Williams added a second after more good work from Ravouvou and Viliame Mata, that was the Bears' bonus point secured with, astonishingly, just over a quarter of an hour played. This is unbelievable 😮 FIVE tries in the first 11 minutes at Ashton Gate. Grab the popcorn and enjoy this Bristol v Exeter barnstormer 🍿 #GallagherPrem | #BRIvEXE — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) March 22, 2025 Exeter, after their Premiership Rugby Cup final defeat to Bath last Sunday, played their part in a spectacle with which the Chiefs might not have been traditionally associated. Paul Brown-Bampoe came close before Dafydd Jenkins, the Wales lock, muscled over from close range. In the build-up, Mata marmelised Slade (legally) with one of the hits of the season but moments later Santiago Grondona got it very wrong on Martin Moloney (illegally), with a clumsy head-on-head tackle. Grondona correctly saw red in what was a routine call for referee Karl Dickson. My goodness! 💪 A MONSTER hit from Bill Mata 😧 #GallagherPrem #BRIvEXE — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) March 22, 2025 Tries ☑️ Big hits ☑️ Cards ☑️ This game has everything! And now it's a @premrugby first as Karl Dickson explains the Santiago Grondona red card decision to the spectators over the PA at Ashton Gate. #GallagherPrem | #BRIvEXE — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) March 22, 2025 By the time that Bristol were reduced to 14 – wing Ravouvou was also sacrificed for Steven Luatua to mitigate the back-row loss – Exeter had cut the deficit to nine thanks to an impressive solo try from Hodge cancelling out Bates's second. Hodge's scoring pass, fired by Coen, looked a metre forward but it would not really have been in the spirit of things to have called it back, would it? Randall darted from the base to score the 10th try of the first half and give the Bears a 16-point half-time cushion after the wackiest half in this – or, probably, any – Premiership season. Ten first-half tries, what is happening here?! And that's a new @premrugby record 📊 — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) March 22, 2025 Luatua crossed for Bristol's seventh before Bates sealed his hat-trick in his 50th game for the club; the Bears' third score with no reply while down to 14 players. Jack Yeandle and Will Rigg addressed Exeter's second-half try drought late on but Bristol make merry in the madness and were always going to hold their nutty nerve. The red card hasn't dampened @BristolBears ' attacking intent. Jack Bates runs in for his hat-trick to extend the lead 🎩 #GallagherPrem | #BRIvEXE — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) March 22, 2025
