Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. (NOU-T) has commitments for $297 million (all figures US) in investment to develop its Quebec graphite mine, with the aim of meeting high demand for the critical mineral. 

Last Thursday, the Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Que.-headquartered company announced the funding, consisting of a $213-million private placement and $84 million in a bought deal public offering of subscription receipts.

The private placement is made up of funding from the Canada Growth Fund, Investissement Québec and Italian energy company Eni. The public offering is led by BMO Capital Markets and National Bank Capital Markets.

With the funding, Nouveau Monde Graphite aims to start construction on the commercial operations of its Matawinie mine, the company’s president, CEO and founder Eric Desaulniers said in an interview with Sustainable Biz Canada. The graphite is to supply the company’s anode material factory in Becancour, with battery producer Panasonic Energy as a major client.

Panasonic “needed to diversify their supply chain and have a local supplier,” Desaulniers said, “and that’s the reason why Panasonic is really keen and invested in our project.”

About the Matawinie project

The Matawinie mine is located 120 kilometres north of Montreal. Nouveau Monde Graphite plans to produce approximately 106,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate per year from the site. The concentrate would be produced at 97.5 per cent purity in different flake sizes, aimed at a variety of customers.

Nouveau Monde Graphite expects a combined 75 per cent of the output from the mine to be sold to three customer streams:

• Panasonic Energy, a subsidiary of the Japanese company, which builds batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and data centre backup energy storage.
• Traxys, a Luxembourg-based metals trading house, which secured 20,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate per year.
• Approximately 200 small companies based in G7 countries needing graphite for a variety of industries such as oils and plastics.

The remaining output has yet to be allocated. Eni is negotiating an offtake deal for the 25 per cent, Desaulniers said. Other companies are “attracted by a project located in Canada that is in construction, with a precise date of delivery,” he added.

“What I like now is the very good diversification of our market segments,” Desaulniers said. Previously, the company was skewed to supplying EV components, but has since expanded to clients in energy storage, defence and steel.

“We have a much more diversified portfolio of sales thanks to Mr. Trump who forced us to look up on other stuff than EVs in the U.S.”

Using the latest funds, plus a commitment for senior project debt facilities of $335 million announced in March, NMG expects to have the funds to reach commercial operation of the mine, which is anticipated to start in late 2028.

Nouveau Monde Graphite’s anode factory

Some of the concentrated graphite is to be allocated to the company’s planned anode material factory in Becancour, a city between Montreal and Quebec City that is becoming a major site for Canada’s battery sector.

Nouveau Monde Graphite plans to produce 13,000 tonnes of active anode material per year that will be shipped to Panasonic Energy for its U.S.-based battery production. An additional 12,000 tonnes of byproducts per year are expected to be generated and sold to other companies.

The company acquired an approximately 1.5-million-square-foot brownfield site in Becancour for its anode material facility. Originally, Nouveau Monde Graphite planned to build the factory on a neighbouring greenfield site, Desaulniers said. But when one of its original partners, General Motors, exited the plan, it forced a shift.

The brownfield site does have its advantages. Desaulniers noted the factory will be built by refurbishing an existing building on land already permitted for industrial development, shortening the project timeline cutting tens of millions of dollars from the budget. Nouveau Monde Graphite can be cost competitive with Chinese producers as a result, he continued.

As a new company entering a graphite market dominated by Chinese producers, Nouveau Monde Graphite can match its Asian competitors with higher purity and better sustainability, Desaulniers said. The company plans to run its operations with low-carbon electricity.

Nouveau Monde Graphite aims to align the anode material factory’s operations with its mine; it plans to start operations at the factory in late 2028, with construction to start this year.

Nouveau Monde Graphite’s potential developments

There are expansion opportunities for Nouveau Monde Graphite, should the company find the traction.

The greenfield site, for example, could host a factory that can produce up to 44,000 tonnes of anode materials per year, Desaulniers said.

Additionally, the company has the potential to double the capacity of the Matawinie mine by tapping into a larger resource.

Nouveau Monde Graphite is waiting for expansion within the industry for its Uatnan mine project, an asset near René-Levasseur Island which it acquired in 2024. It is projected to be significantly larger than Matawinie, at up to 500,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate production per year.

“We need to see the market evolving a lot to justify a 500,000-tonne mine. We may do (250,000) or (300,000) depending on how much offtake we are able to secure,” Desaulniers said.