Canadian graphite mine developer Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG) will begin production of flake graphite from its demonstration plant (DP) this month and supply material to customers in North America and Europe. It is targeting 2,000 t/y of production over the next two years, as well as 250,000 y/y of uncoated spherical graphite for use in lithium-ion batteries and 100,000 t/y of expandable graphite.
Roskill notes that “currently, all commercial-scale production of spherical graphite takes place in China because of the industry’s large environmental and economic barriers to entry. Lithium-ion battery manufacturing chains are also largely centred on China and, therefore, China provides the most important market for spherical graphite.”
“The marketing phase we are about to embark in is an exciting step for NMG. Having refined our DP process design upon results of the metallurgy optimization program (press release issued on April 11, 2017), we can expect a very high global recovery rate. The excellent granulometric distribution of our deposit as well as the high purity potential of our graphite flakes should also play favourably on the value of our products, while allowing us to pursue many markets and diversify our product portfolio, hence catering to a vaster customer base,” explains Éric Desaulniers, President and CEO of NMG.
The DP is located in a building previously host to the Louisiana Pacific, in Saint-Michel-des-Saints. It is an important milestone in NMG’s strategy as it will serve to:
•Qualify NMG graphite products and establish a sales record
•Test and improve processes for commercial operation optimization
•Test new innovative technologies of mining waste management and site restoration
•Start employee training and local future workforce reach-out program.
The graphite products that will be offered to customers are NMG Flake +50, NMG Flake +80, NMG Flake +150, NMG Fine Flake, all grades between 94-98 % Cg (as per technical requirements). Other custom products will be available.
Over the course of the year, NMG also plans on installing two added-value graphite product processes inside the DP. These two processes concern expandable graphite (NMG-EXP9698) and spherical graphite (NMG-SG9995) for the manufacture of anode material for the lithium-ion battery market.
It was 2015 when NMG discovered two major and high-quality graphite deposits on its Matawinie property, located in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, 150 km north of Montreal, Quebec. The discovery led to the announcement of a PFS on October 25, 2017. The study results reveal projected graphite concentrate production levels of 52,000 t/y over a 27-year period. Having secured C$13.7 million in venture investments, NMG aims at operating its 2,000 t/y of graphite flake concentrate demonstration facility for a two-year period.
