Graphite is found in large deposits in Sri Lanka, Malagasy Republic, the former USSR, South Korea, Mexico, and Czechoslovakia. Economic deposits at Val Chisone (Italy). Small hexagonal crystals in marble at Ogdensburg, New Jersey (USA) and in gneiss at Edison, New Jersey (USA). Natural: It is formed in high-grade metamorphic rocks as a final product of the carbonization of organic materials. It is probably also a primary magmatic substance in some pegmatites and hydrothermal veins.

Synthetic: Coke is a graphite product that is about 94% carbon. It is produced by heating soft coal in an oven that has no access to air. Most of the impurities sublime off, leaving fairly pure carbon. Lampblack is produced by the burning of methane gas in a special compartment that has no access to oxygen and has water-cooled walls. As the oxygen-starved yellow flame burns, it produces a dense black soot that collects on the cooled wall. Most synthetic graphite is obtained from petroleum coke, the black tar that remains after all of the useful fuels and organic lubricants have been distilled from crude oil. This tar is treated in an oxygen-free oven to burn off any remaining organic impurities. The material that remains is a high percentage of graphite.