2023-07-14 15:42:27
Since 2022, the Ontario mining company Northern Graphite has operated the only active graphite mine in North America (excluding Mexico), which is located in Lac-des-Îles, near Mont-Laurier, in the Laurentians. (Photo: Jade Trudelle)
The Ontario miner Northern Graphite (NGC.V; $0.40) “hopes” to extend the life of the only active graphite mine in Quebec and North America by 10 to 15 years (excluding Mexico), located in Lac-des-Îles, near Mont-Laurier, in the Laurentians.
On Thursday, July 6, we drove some 250 kilometers to visit this open-pit mine located northwest of Montreal, and interview the company’s chief operating officer, Kirsty Liddicoat.
The Australian-born Canadian – who has worked in the mining sector in Australia and Western Canada – says the company is confident of achieving this goal, while being very cautious in its remarks.
“We’re hoping for up to 10-15 years, but we won’t know until the results are known,” says this mining engineer, under the watchful gaze of other members of management sitting around the room table. administrative building meeting room.
In short, Northern Graphite will only know the truth when it has completed the new drilling campaign that began in May, and when it receives the final results in the coming months.
Founded in 2002 and publicly traded, Northern Graphite is subject to strict disclosure regulations.
The mine produces 15,000 tonnes of graphite per year. This critical and strategic mineral is used in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles, but also in certain industrial processes as insulation against heat, for example.
In 2022, China produced 65% of the graphite in the world (850,000 tons per year), according to la United States Geological Survey (USGS). North America (excluding Mexico) only produces 1.15%, or the 15,000 tonnes produced at Lac-des-Îles.
Six major Asian companies – three Chinese, two South Korean and one Japanese – recover graphite to make anode material for lithium-ion batteries in particular.
Northern Graphite, which also has a project to build an anode equipment plant in Baie-Comeau, wants to break this Asian monopoly, just like the Quebec mining company Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG), another key player in this industry in Quebec. and in North America.
NMG has an open-pit graphite mine project in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, in Lanaudière, which should be commissioned at the end of 2025. It also has a joint venture with Mason Graphite to develop and exploit the deposit of graphite from Lac Guéret, located 285 kilometers north of Baie-Comeau.
To upgrade the graphite, NMG has a small purification plant in the Bécancour industrial and port park, in addition to planning the construction of a large anode material plant, in Bécancour, which will be operational in 2026.
A turning point for Northern Graphite
It was the French mining company Imerys that launched the graphite mine at Lac-des-Îles in 1989.
In December 2021, Northern Graphite acquired this mine, as well as another mine of this company located in Namibia, Africa. It will be back in service in 2024, and it will produce 31,000 tonnes of graphite per year.
The Ontario company also has a graphite mine project in Ontario (Bissett Creek), which should produce 44,000 tonnes of graphite per year starting in 2026.
The acquisition of the two Imerys graphite mines is a turning point for Northern Graphite in its long-term business strategy, explains the CEO of the mining company, Hugues Jacquemin, whom we interviewed by videoconference, because he lives in Europe.
The mine in Quebec provides revenue and profits for the company to develop, in particular to partially finance its future factory in Baie-Comeau – in phase 1, starting in 2026, it will produce 20,000 tonnes of mining material. anode per year.
“With a production of 15,000 tons per year, the Lac-des-Îles site enables us to generate an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes and amortization) oscillating between 10 and 15 million Canadian dollars”, underlines Hugues Jacquemin, who is familiar with the global graphite industry, particularly in China.
The future Baie-Comeau plant – which Northern Graphite will build with private partners – will be supplied largely by graphite produced by the Lac-des-Îles, Namibia and Bissett Creek mines.
That said, the Ontario mining company could source graphite elsewhere, because its Baie-Comeau plant will have a production capacity of 200,000 tonnes of anode material per year by 2030, when phase 3 is completed.
We are talking here about an investment that could eventually approach a billion dollars.
Hugues Jacquemin points out that theInflation reduction Act in the United States – the flagship legislation of the Biden administration, adopted in 2022 – will have a structuring impact in the development of Northern Graphite in the secondary transformation of graphite, in Baie-Comeau.
“It’s going to really open up the market and be a game changer,” he says enthusiastically.
To qualify for the tax credit of up to US$7,500 (CA$9,850) to purchase an electric car in the United States, a significant portion of vehicle components, including batteries, must be manufactured in North America. North.
This explains why manufacturers of electric cars and batteries are building more and more factories in the United States and Canada.
And that a mining company like Northern Graphite wants to operate a graphite mine in Quebec and manufacture anode material in Baie-Comeau, a strategic location due to its geographic location, according to Hugues Jacquemin.
For example, the future plant will be located not far from Hydro-Québec’s electricity production sites. In addition, Baie-Comeau has a deep-water port, which has a direct connection with the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the most important port in Europe.
“The port of Baie-Comeau is also well located to import graphite from Africa and to export our anode material to Europe or to central Canada and the United States via the St. Lawrence Seaway” , argues the big boss of Northern Graphite.
In 2014, the mine’s former owner, Imerys, began to rehabilitate a valley that it had filled with its mine tailings, between 1990 and 2012. Today, this valley is filled with a very diverse flora. (Photo: Jade Trudelle)
Innovative projects for the ecosystem
Like all mining companies in operation or who have projects, operating a mine in an inhabited region presents significant challenges. And Northern Graphite is no exception to this rule with its mine in Lac-des-Îles.
Looking inside pit number 2, 45 meters deep, we see on the horizon a house located a few hundred meters away. A natural sound barrier helps limit noise to 45 decibels, despite weekly dynamite explosions at the site, according to Northern Graphite.
The vice-president of projects at the mining company, Serge Théberge, explains that these accommodations make it possible to maintain a “good relationship” with the neighborhood. The Ontario company also meets regularly with citizens to ensure that their needs or questions are met.
Later in the visit to the mine site, the person in charge of the environment at the mine, Alban Duvernois, points to a bird of prey in the distance, well settled in the middle of the residual rocks from the drilling.
For this employee, it is not uncommon to see animals walking around the site: foxes, porcupines and sometimes even bears. Nature always seems to take over business activities.
He explains the phenomenon by the company’s efforts to respect ecosystems. For example, no shrill or contaminating noise comes from the site, he assures.
Alban Duvernois has several projects to make this mine a model in the industry. “The company and its leaders have a very good vision” when it comes to innovation, he says.
He hopes to be able to submit the first report on the mine’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2024.
Several projects are also in the works, including adding biodiversity to their artificial water basin, formerly pit number 12, to recreate a wetland.
This project is possible since no chemicals are dumped in this basin. The PH therefore remains within the standards in a natural way, so that the basin will eventually be able to accommodate marine species in complete safety.
The former owner of the mine, the French company Imerys, also had a concern for the environment. In 2014, this company began to rehabilitate a large valley that it had filled with its mine tailings between 1990 and 2012.
One of the biggest consequences of the mining industry is indeed to create large non-sterile surfaces. However, today, this valley is filled with a very diverse flora and its ecosystem is completely autonomous from human activity, according to Albin Duvernois.
A new project that is not unanimous
In addition, Northern Graphite wishes to increase its drilling activities with the acquisition of the Mousseau Ouest project, not far from the Lac-des-Îles mine. This is a career project – not a mine with a mill – the social acceptability of which could, however, upset the company’s plans.
However, obtaining the social acceptability of mining projects is essential, affirmed last year the Premier of Quebec, François Legault.
Raymond Carrier, president of the Kiamika Reservoir Owners Association, launched a petition for the Mousseau project, which received the signatures of more than 3,000 people. The signatories fear significant environmental consequences and the upheaval of their tranquility.
“It’s a lack of education about the mining industry,” said Serge Théberge.
In his eyes, many people still have in mind the old mines that had significant negative effects on the environment. Citizens would not see all the benefits that this project could bring to the region either.
Serge Théberge is also convinced of being able to reach a compromise with the population in order to be able to pursue this project.
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