“Matawinie is currently the largest graphite mine being planned in the Western world, and we aim to become the largest graphite mine in the world in partnership with Mason Graphite.”

What is the latest status of Nouveau Monde Graphite’s Matawinie project?

The Matawinie project is being advanced in phases. Phase one has been completed, and we now have the capacity to produce 1,000 t/y of natural flake and 2,000 t/y for transformation into battery grade material. We are currently fully permitted for phase 2, have started construction of the mine, and are completing the full feasibility study (FS) for publication by July 2022. Over the next 12 months we will focus on publishing the FS and announcing our offtake agreement with an anchor customer. The offtake agreement may dictate some changes in the FS to optimize the project according to the needs of this specific customer, and based on that, we will continue with project financing, probably in Q1 2023.

How big is the Matawinie mine and what will this mean for the industry in North America and Québec?

Nouveau Monde Graphite is developing a 100,000 t/y flake graphite mine. Matawinie is currently the largest graphite mine being planned in the Western world, and we aim to become the largest graphite mine in the world in partnership with Mason Graphite.

Can you elaborate on the joint venture between Nouveau Monde and Mason Graphite on the development on Lac Guéret project?

Lac Guéret was designed 10 years ago when there was still uncertainty regarding the longevity of the battery market. Mason Graphite thus designed the mine a bit smaller at 51,800 t/y, and due to this small scale, they needed to truck the ore approximately 300 km to Baie-Comeau. Understanding the growing graphite market, we now prefer processing the ore on-site. We have leveraged our development, permitting and process teams to design the project which we expect to start construction for in 2025.

How does graphite contribute to the battery material supply chain?

There are currently 304 battery plants under construction. Battery plants use different chemistries for diversification purposes as to not rely on a single cathode material. On the anode side, however, 95% is graphite with only 5% being silicon. Lithium-ion batteries thus hold a significant market opportunity for graphite in the coming years. Other growth opportunities include by-product plays for hydrogen fuel cells, which is something we are closely monitoring. The traditional market also needs graphite, and Nouveau Monde will continue to service this market.

What benefits will the Matawinie Mine have on its local surroundings?

During construction, we expect to employ approximately 300 people. We target having 160 permanent local employees once the mine is in operation. We have been transparent in how we want to build our mine, considering the priorities of the local community, whose support was key in the project’s development.

Nouveau Monde currently has two training programs. One is with the First Nations community of Manawan, where 50% of the population is younger than 20 years old. This offers us a fantastic opportunity to deeply involve the locals in our project. We also have a trade school in our demonstration plant where we have already trained approximately 80 people in partnership with the local sawmill. We place emphasis on training to ensure we do not run into a supply deficit of human resources, as there is already a lot of competition in the mining world.

Matawinie will be an all-electric mine. Can you tell us about the environmental benefits in terms of the project’s carbon footprint?

We are targeting carbon neutrality. This means we will need to compensate for cutting down trees and will have to implement processes to emit minimal amounts of carbon. We are working with Caterpillar to develop a full zero-extraction solution which can then be duplicated in other mining operations. We are focusing on carbon capture, storing CO2 under the right conditions, and transforming CO2 into CO3, which is something I hope all mines will adopt in the future.