Mason Graphite has signed a letter agreement with Group NanoXplore whereby Mason Graphite would purchase up to 40% of the issued and outstanding shares of NanoXplore for $700,000. In connection with the proposed transaction, a private placement for 875,000 common shares of the company at a price of $0.80 has been fully subscribed for by members of the management teams of Forbes & Manhattan and Mason Graphite. NanoXplore is a privately held research and development company focused on developing low cost, large-scale production of graphene from natural flake graphite, and integrating it into several industries including energy and textiles.
Graphene can be produced using a variety of processes, including Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) and liquid exfoliation, however many of them are not scalable and are associated with higher processing costs. NanoXplore’s proprietary technique is a low cost, low energy, safe and scalable electrochemical conversion method which turns natural flake graphite into graphene.
Mason Graphite is a Canadian mining company focused on the exploration and development of its 100% owned Lac Guéret graphite property, located in northeast Québec. The property hosts an NI 43-101 compliant Mineral Resource featuring 50,024,000 t grading 15.6% Cg, including 6,672,000 t grading 32.4% Cg, in the Measured and Indicated categories and 11,861,000 t grading 17.1% Cg, including 2,637,000 t grading 30.5% Cg, in the Inferred category. Excellent potential exists for further mineral growth. A Preliminary Economic Assessment study was completed on a 7.6 Mt mineral resource estimate from July 2012 which features 22 years of production at 27.4% Cg and a pre-tax IRR of 33.7% (see technical report entitled Technical Report on the Preliminary Economic Assessment, Lac Gueret Graphite Project, Quebec, Canada effective April 22, 2013). The company’s senior management team possesses significant graphite expertise from their experience at Timcal/Imerys, including Benoît Gascon, who held executive positions for 20 years, including over six years as President and CEO; Jean L’Heureux, Executive Vice-President, Process Development, with over 20 years of experience; and Luc Veilleux, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice-President, with eight years of experience. Timcal, now owned by Imerys, is one of the largest graphite producers in the world.
“We are thrilled with the synergies between Mason Graphite and NanoXplore,” commented Benoît Gascon, President and CEO of Mason Graphite. “This mutually beneficial alliance will connect our expert teams and combine potential low cost flake graphite production from our Lac Guéret project and potential low cost graphene production from NanoXplore’s process. Through this strategic alliance, we will eventually become NanoXplore’s exclusive supplier of natural flake graphite and we will actively be involved in all facets of their sales and marketing activities. Customers seeking flake graphite are potential customers of graphene; as such, we strongly believe that the relationships we have developed with global graphite customers in the last two decades will greatly benefit NanoXplore’s market penetration and distribution abilities. We are eager to work with NanoXplore and to include graphene in our business model, a substance which The Wall Street Journal last year labelled as a ‘wonder material’.”
NanoXplore was founded in 2011 by Soroush Nazarpour, who started his academic career with a Materials Engineering degree from the Sahand University of Technology. He continued his studies at the University of Barcelona where he obtained his Masters in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, and a Ph. D. in Nanoscience. Nazarpour is a published author of two books and a number of scientific journals.
Stan Bharti, Chairman of Forbes & Manhattan, commented: “Mason Graphite has secured a large ownership position in NanoXplore on favourable terms due to the contribution of its knowledgeable and experienced team. We are very excited about this investment opportunity and strongly believe that the combined expertise of NanoXplore and Mason Graphite will generate tremendous value.”
