Nouveau Monde Graphite has commenced civil construction works for its flagship Matawinie graphite project in Québec, Canada.
Construction on the mining project follows an environmental decree issued by the Québec government to the company in February 2021. It also follows the launch of preliminary works in March 2021.
Nouveau Monde Graphite president and CEO Eric Desaulniers said: “This first milestone kick starts the construction of the Matawinie mine, as we strive to build the high-quality, ethical, and sustainable project that can cater to the growing EV and energy storage markets.
“We have spent the past months refining our execution plan to carry out engineering, procurement, and construction activities safely and with a focus on cost and timeline efficiency.”
Nouveau Monde Graphite aims to complete the Matawinie graphite project by the end of 2023.
The graphite mine is located in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, 120km north of Montréal. It is targeted to produce 100,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of high-purity graphite concentrate.
Nouveau Monde Graphite chairman Arne H Frandsen said: “The construction of our mine is now underway, and our team is single-mindedly focused on successfully delivering this important project, on time and on budget – always being mindful of the highest levels of environmental and social standards.”
The company said that it is also progressing detailed engineering for the project in order for advancing its procurement activities for construction contracts and ore processing equipment.
Nouveau Monde Graphite said that Metso Outotec has been engaged for supplying key mineral processing equipment needed for the concentrator plant of the project.
Last month, Nouveau Monde Graphite signed an agreement with Caterpillar for developing, testing, and producing Cat zero-emission machines for the Matawinie graphite project.
The all-electric open pit graphite mine is projected to see an initial capital expenditure of CAD276m ($221.8m), as per a feasibility study published in 2018. Its life of mine is 25.5 years.
The graphite project is estimated to have probable reserves of 33Mt grading 4.39% Cg. It is made up of 319 mining claims, that are spread over 17,585ha.
