NOVELTY - Forming expanded hexagonal layered mineral (HLM), comprises: immersing at least a portion of an HLM rock (20) in a slurry (50) constituted by a mixture of expanded HLM rock, a metal salt and an organic solvent; electrochemically charging the HLM rock by incorporating the HLM rock into at least one electrode and performing electrolysis through slurry using the electrode, thus introducing the organic solvent and ions from metal salt from the slurry into interlayer spacings of the HLM rock to form first stage charged HLM that exfoliates from the HLM rock; and expanding first stage charged HLM.    USE - The process is useful for forming expanded HLM (claimed) which is used in batteries and hydrogen fuel cells.    ADVANTAGE - The process: can transform hexagonal layered minerals into an expanded form with almost 90% yield in a single pass, without pretreatment such as milling, and without the need of acids; provides the HLM having improved viscosity and electrical conductivity; and provides expanded graphite that has much higher energy and gas storage capacity than ordinary graphite.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Forming expanded hexagonal layered mineral (HLM), comprises: immersing at least a portion of an HLM rock (20) in a slurry (50) constituted by a mixture of expanded HLM rock, a metal salt and an organic solvent, where the HLM rock has atomic interlayers each having an hexagonal lattice structure, with the atomic interlayers separated by interlayer spacings; electrochemically charging the HLM rock by incorporating the HLM rock into at least one electrode and performing electrolysis through the slurry using the electrode, thus introducing the organic solvent and ions from the metal salt from the slurry into the interlayer spacings of the HLM rock to form first stage charged HLM that exfoliates from the HLM rock; and expanding the first stage charged HLM by applying an expanding force to increase the interlayer spacings between the atomic layers. INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are also included for:    (1) a composition of matter for performing electrochemical charging of HLM comprising: 15-20 wt.% HLM rock; 0.1-5 wt.% HLM flake; and an electrolyte of 80-160 g/l of lithium perchlorate (5-10 wt.%) in propylene carbonate (70-80 wt.%); and    (2) forming expanded graphite from graphite rock having atomic interlayers with an interlayer spacing, comprising: immersing at least a portion of a graphite rock in the slurry constituted by a mixture of expanded graphite, a metal salt and the organic solvent, where the graphite rock includes atomic interlayers with interlayer spacings; electrochemically charging the graphite rock by incorporating the graphite rock into the electrode and performing electrolysis through the slurry using the electrode, thus introducing the organic solvent and ions from the metal salt from the slurry into the interlayer spacings of the graphite rock to form first stage charged graphite that exfoliates from the graphite rock; and expanding the electrochemically first stage charged graphite by applying an expanding force to increase the interlayer spacings between the atomic layers.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure illustrates schematic diagram of the electrochemical charging system configured to perform electrochemical charging of the expanded hexagonal layered mineral (HLM) rocks in forming expanded HLM and its derivatives.    System (10)    HLM rock (20)    Container (40)    Slurry (50)    Electrodes (100)