GRAPHITE: Nouveau Monde enjoys $4.25M federal grant

QUEBEC – Nouveau Monde Graphite of Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Que., has received a $4.25-million commercialization grant from the federally funded Sustainable Development Technology Canada program. The funds will be used to build a value added graphite purification processing plant near the Matawinie mine site. [caption id="attachment_1003730348" align="alignright" width="224"] Exploded view of a lithium ion battery that will provide a market for spherical graphite. (Image: Nouveau Monde Graphite)[/caption] This plant is the first phase of a commercial facility capable of producing spherical graphite products. The product will contain less than 500 ppm of impurities. Successful completion will make Nouveau Monde the only producer of spherical graphite in North America. Spherical graphite is used in the anodes of lithium ion batteries. Nouveau Monde will be using a much greener process than the chemical-laden process used in China where most of the world’s spherical graphite is made. Nouveau Monde’s process uses renewable hydroelectricity generated in Quebec. The company acquired the high quality Matawinie flake graphite property 150 km north of Montreal in 2015. Details are available at www.NouveauMonde.ca.