Nouveau Monde Graphite, a junior mining company based in Quebec, is developing a new graphite mine to be operated only with all-electric equipment in the hope to bring carbon-neutral materials in the electric vehicle supply chain.
Like we have often stated in the past, securing battery supply is the foundation of the electrification of the auto industry.
It requires a brand new and extensive supply chain and when it comes to the raw materials to make li-ion batteries, which have enabled this new generation of electric vehicles to disrupt the industry.
Eric Desaulniers, President and CEO of Nouveau Monde, argues that graphite is one of those important raw materials.
In an interview, he told Electrek that the li-ion battery cells today have about 1.2 kg of graphite per kWh of energy capacity.
For example, it would mean that a Tesla Model S 100D has about 120 kg of graphite.
Therefore, the auto industry is going to need a lot of graphite to build the batteries it needs to support its ambitious electrification goals.
Nouveau Monde Graphite plans to help automakers and battery manufacturers achieve those goals with its plan for a mine at what is believed to be the biggest graphite deposit in North America.
Their Matawinie project is located in Saint-Michel-des-Saints in Quebec, Canada – about two hours north of Montreal.
Based on their feasibility study, they expect 100,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate production per year, with an average concentrate purity of 97%, over a 26-year period.
The company can sell this graphite to a bunch of different markets, but it aims to also build a large-scale secondary graphite transformation facility in order to create a 99.95% pure spheric product catering to the needs of the booming lithium-ion battery industry.
Desaulniers told Electrek that Nouveau Monde’s graphite will be cheaper and cleaner than synthetic graphite from Asia, which often requires fossil fuels in the transformation process.
It will be transformed using clean electricity from Quebec’s extensive hydropower and on top of that, Nouveau Monde Graphite plans for its entire mine operations to be all-electric.
In recent years, we reported on several efforts to electrify massive construction and mining equipment.
For example, a giant dumper truck used in a mine in Europe is the world’s largest electric vehicle with a massive 700 kWh battery pack.
Nouveau Monde Graphite has been working with a few major companies with plans to electrify their equipment lineup, including excavators, dozers and transporters in order to only use electric equipment in the future.
Desaulniers said:
“Stay tuned. There will be some great announcements soon. It will result in the greenest product.”
Between the electric mining operation and the clean transformation process at their secondary plant, the company believes it is going to be able to deliver some of the greatest and cleanest graphite to help support the industry, which is working to open dozens of gigafactories to produce batteries for electric cars.
They released today a humourous video to communicate that:
They have already invested $45 million in the project, but Desaulniers told Electrek that they are going to have to raise about $300 million over the next few years in order to bring the project to production in 2022.
Nouveau Monde Graphite is already backed by major investors like the Quebec government and the Pallinghurst Group, but they are also turning to individual investors to support the project.
The company is listed on the OTC market (US) under the ticker ‘NMGRF’, in Canada under NOU.V, and on the Frankfurt exchange under ‘NM9’.
With Tesla’s success on the stock market, investors might be looking at the next investment opportunity in the EV industry and the company believes they could be it.
You can go check out the project on Nouveau Monde Graphite’s website and companies can order graphite from the company demonstration plant for consideration.
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