Graphite mine and factory | New World Graphite finds 70 million

While waiting to finalize its feasibility study, which is taking longer than expected, Nouveau Monde Graphite is collecting 70 million from the Legault government and a federal fund aimed at supporting decarbonization projects. The company will be able to continue to finance its needs.

The Quebec company, which wishes to operate a mine and a graphite factory in order to supply manufacturers of electric vehicles, should have taken stock of its ambitions before the end of the year.

However, it will take a little more time. This should in principle be done by the end of March 2025. The money collected from Quebec and Ottawa, an operation announced Tuesday, will allow the mining company to obtain a little respite until it completes its financial arrangement.

“The funds will be used to complete detailed engineering and various construction activities to maintain the overall project schedule while waiting for financing,” explains its president and CEO, Eric Desaulniers, in an interview with The Press.

Nouveau Monde Graphite is simultaneously developing a graphite mine in Saint-Michel-des-Saints and a plant to transform the ore into anode materials – the negative pole of a lithium-ion battery that powers an electric vehicle.

Its transformation complex is to be built in the Bécancour industrial park, the cradle of the Quebec battery industry. The two parts of the project represent an investment of 1.4 billion. However, mining production has not yet started. We are targeting the year 2027. The anode materials factory has not been built either.

Investissement Québec (IQ) has agreed to put 35 million back into Nouveau Monde Graphite. So far, the financial arm of the Quebec state has injected nearly 50 million into the company.

At the same time, the Canada Growth Fund, whose management has been entrusted to the Montreal firm Investissements PSP, is increasing the same amount. This is the first direct intervention of the Fund – with a budget of 15 billion – in a Quebec company.

“Nouveau Monde Graphite has good partners with General Motors (GM) and Panasonic,” emphasizes Patrick Charbonneau, President and CEO of the Canada Growth Fund. The project is progressing at its own pace. The company has excellent partners and shareholders who support the mine and mill project. »

IQ and the Fund invest in Nouveau Monde Graphite through a private placement – ​​the purchase of shares. At the start of the year, GM and Panasonic offered identical financial support to the Quebec company.

The latter, however, indicated last month that agreements concluded with the American automobile manufacturer and the Japanese giant could be threatened.

The contracts contain conditions that will not be respected, particularly in terms of deadlines for a final investment decision. We are talking about a financing tranche of US 275 million which is at stake, but not threatened, according to Nouveau Monde Graphite.

Read “Delay could be costly for Nouveau Monde Graphite”

Mr. Desaulniers tempered this situation by emphasizing that the “overall delivery” remained the same.

“There will be no impact,” he says. With the financing, we will have a little over 100 million in cash to make our decisions and maintain the overall project schedule, even if construction begins a little later. »

Announced in the 2022 federal budget, the Canada Growth Fund has so far committed $2 billion to various projects in Canada. In Quebec, it has already injected 100 million to support two funds: MKB and the Idealist Climate Impact Fund.

With information from Hélène Baril, The Press