Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. engages in the acquisition, exploration, evaluation, and development of mineral properties located in Quebec. The company engages in developing a natural graphite-based anode material that would qualify as battery-grade material to supply the lithium-ion industry.
The company engages in developing responsible mining and advanced manufacturing projects to supply the global economy with carbon-neutral anode material to power electric vehicles (EV) and energy storage sy...
Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. engages in the acquisition, exploration, evaluation, and development of mineral properties located in Quebec. The company engages in developing a natural graphite-based anode material that would qualify as battery-grade material to supply the lithium-ion industry.
The company engages in developing responsible mining and advanced manufacturing projects to supply the global economy with carbon-neutral anode material to power electric vehicles (EV) and energy storage systems. The company focuses on the Matawinie graphite mine and concentrator project (the Matawinie Mine Project) and the commercial value-added graphite products transformation plant project (the Becancour Battery Material Plant Project), both of which are progressing concurrently towards commercial operations. The company is also planning the development of the Uatnan mining project (the Uatnan Mining Project) as a subsequent expansion phase. Underpinning these projects are its Matawinie and Lac Guéret graphite deposits, its proprietary technologies, and clean hydroelectricity powering its operations.
The company is working towards developing a fully integrated source of carbon-neutral battery anode material in Quebec, Canada for the growing lithium-ion and fuel cell markets. With enviable ESG standards, the company aspires to become a strategic supplier to the world’s leading battery and auto manufacturers, providing high-performing and reliable advanced materials while promoting sustainability and supply chain traceability. The company focuses on supplying the rapidly growing EV market, as well as established but evolving specialty graphite applications.
The company is positioning itself to respond to market trends. The company is ideally located to cater to the North American and European markets with its large graphite deposit, proprietary ecotechnologies, demonstrated production capacity, carbon-neutral profile, as well as preferential jurisdiction advantages, including clean hydropower, flexible logistical base, and stable fiscal and political environment.
Becancour Battery Material Plant Project
The Becancour Battery Material Plant Project for Phase 2 is planned to be located on a 200,000 square meter (m2) parcel of land located in the industrial park of Becancour, Quebec, which the company announced it acquired on January 21, 2021. The company’s Phase 2 site for the Becancour Battery Material Plant Project is strategically situated for large-scale Anode Material production, with proximity to potential customers, access to key utilities (e.g., water, hydropower, gas), an adjacent chlor-alkali producer which provides access to key consumables, a skilled workforce and an adjacent deep-water international port on the St. Lawrence River.
The Becancour Battery Material Plant Project is set to produce a wide range of graphite-based advanced materials through onsite shaping, purification, and coating transformation units. The company is testing and operating Phase-1 units for these beneficiation processes, thus informing the engineering of the planned Phase 2 facility that should produce about 43,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of active Anode Material, 3,000 tpa of purified jumbo flakes and other specialty products. The majority of the Matawinie Mine Project’s production is targeted to be used as feedstock for value-added transformation at this plant.
Matawinie Mine Project
Matawinie Graphite Property
The Matawinie Graphite Property includes 235 mining claims forming 6 non-contiguous claim blocks totalling 12,707 hectares as of December 31, 2023 and 176 mining claims forming 2 non-contiguous claim block totalling 9,264 hectares as of December 31, 2023 (the Matawinie Graphite Property). The Tony claims block, which is part of the Matawinie Graphite Property and which is also known as the Mining Property, consists of 159 contiguous map-designated claims totalling 8,266 hectares.
The Mining Property is located approximately 120 km as the crow flies North of Montreal, Quebec in the Saint-Michel-des-Saints area. The Matawinie Graphite Property, including the West Zone, is easily accessible using the Corporation’s newly built approximately 8 km access road connected to the local highway and is close to high quality infrastructure, including services and high-voltage power lines, which are needed for industrial activities.
Matawinie Mine
Following its international call for prequalification as part of its procurement process for its all-electric fleet and charging infrastructure, the company signed a collaboration agreement with Caterpillar Inc. (Caterpillar) on June 22, 2021, under which Caterpillar will develop, test, and produce Cat zero-emission machines for the Matawinie Mine Project with a view to becoming the exclusive supplier of an all-electric mining fleet for deployment at NMG’s Matawinie Mine Project by Year 5 of Phase-2 operations. The company and Caterpillar have signed definitive agreements to supply the Matawinie Mine Project with an integrated solution that covers a zero-exhaust emission fleet, supporting infrastructure, and service.
Flake Concentration Demonstration Plant
The company operates a graphite flake concentration demonstration plant (the Concentrator Demonstration Plant) since September 2018. The Concentrator Demonstration Plant produces natural graphite concentrate using mineralization from the West Zone deposit, part of its Matawinie Graphite Property.
Uatnan Mining Project
The Uatnan Mining Project Report optimizes the Mineral Resources and aims to expand the original mining project tenfold by targeting the production of approximately 500,000 tpa of graphite, entirely destined for the anode material manufacturing market. The Uatnan Property lies on the southwestern shore of the Manicouagan Reservoir, within the Rivière-aux-Outardes municipality, located in the CÔte-Nord Administrative Region, Quebec, Canada.
The Uatnan Property covers an area of 3,999.52 ha, all of which are 100% in the interest of Mason Graphite with the claims (74 claims) in good standing until July 17, 2024.
Strategy
The company is focused on supplying the rapidly growing EV market as well as other specialty graphite applications.
The integrated material flowsheet developed by the company is designed to leverage the distribution of natural graphite concentrate flake sizes to be produced at the Phase-2 Matawinie Mine Project by catering to the most profitable market segments. Jumbo to coarse flakes will be destined to high-purity, high-margin specialty, and traditional markets while fine to intermediate flakes will be transformed into active anode material at the Phase-2 Becancour Battery Material Plant Project for active anode material for LiB applications. A portion of jumbo flakes will also undergo refinement at the Becancour Battery Material Plant Project to produce purified jumbo flakes for niche applications such as bipolar plates in hydrogen fuel cells. By-products from this facility will also be sold to optimize the Becancour basket price. As part of the 2022 Technical Report, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, an IOSCO-regulated price reporting agency and market intelligence publisher for the LiB to EV supply chain, provided pricing estimates for the North American market. The company is expected to have competitive advantages over international producers, namely its carbon-neutral footprint, multimodal logistical base, stable political jurisdiction, compliance with the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act’s battery material sourcing requirements. Beyond commercialization of Phase-2 production, the development of the Uatnan Mining Project supports its commercial discussions with EV manufacturers and LiB cell makers seeking to secure significant graphite volumes amidst growing market demand and a projected structural deficit of production before the end of the decade (Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, Q4-2023).
In February 2024, the company entered into multiyear offtake agreements for its active anode material, covering approximately 85% of the its planned Phase-2 integrated production, from ore to battery materials, with Anchor Customers.
On February 13, 2019, the company entered into the Joint Marketing and Offtake Agreement with Traxys (‘Traxys’) for flake graphite concentrate to be produced at the Phase-2 Matawinie Mine Project. Traxys markets flake graphite concentrates from the company’s operating graphite demonstration plants for customer product prequalification purposes. For each of the first five years of the Corporation’s Phase-2 commercial production, up to 25,000 tonnes of flake graphite product may be sold through Traxys by the company. Traxys has the exclusive right to market, distribute and resell the flake graphite products to its customer base.
History
The company was founded in 2012. The company was formerly known as Nouveau Monde Mining Enterprises Inc. and changed its name to Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. in 2017.