Graphite Mining

A pencil is a common tool that people use to write and draw. Since people have been using pencils for a long time, I do not think of specifically about what elements contain in the pencils and how they are made. During the lecture, I want to know about where graphite, a major component of the pencils, comes from. Through the research, I am able to found where and how the graphite is extracted.

According to the research, the graphite is made out of the flakes as each layer is linked together by graphene. It has similar properties to metals since they can deliver heat and electricity. The graphite mines are located in various places, but Asia showed the highest rate of producing graphite.

There are many ways of mining graphite, such as hard rock mining, slope mining, and etc. I found the youtube that filmed some process of mining the graphite. On the youtube video, when the shiny texture of the graphite is mined, there are bumpy circles around the surface. When they are cleaned, there are red crystal-like gems on the graphite. It is interesting to see the process of mining the graphite and the after the process of mining. When I research about the graphite mining, it is surprising that one single pencil is not made simply from the machines, in which people extract the graphite from the deep ground and they are recreated into pencils.

https://medium.com/@graphentech77g/where-is-graphite-located-and-how-is-it-extracted-61c6cbd78364

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPpR8pKsiew