Nouveau Monde Graphite has obtained a key mining lease for its Matawinie mine in Quebec. Mining lease No. 1057, issued by Quebec’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests, gives the company the right to mine the graphite deposit at Matawinie, about 120 kilometres north of Montreal, and follows several years of environmental, social and regulatory work.
Founder, president and chief executive Eric Desaulniers called the lease a source of great pride and credited dialogue with the Atikamekw community of Manawan, the municipality of Saint-Michel-des-Saints and Quebec’s regulatory authorities. The project received its environmental and social impact authorisation from Quebec’s environmental public hearings board, BAPE, in 2021, and the company has signed an impact benefit agreement with the Atikamekw First Nation of Manawan that includes First Nation participation in environmental monitoring and in the project’s monitoring committee.
Matawinie is planned to supply up to 106,000 tonnes of graphite a year, which the company says would make it the largest graphite mine in the G7 once built. The project design includes onsite water reuse, biodiversity protection and co-disposal of tailings and waste rock. MiningWatch Canada, an environmental watchdog, has criticised the project over the concentration of heavy metals allegedly reported in nearby waterways.
Shares in Nouveau Monde rose 1.92 percent to C$1.33 in Toronto on Monday morning. The lease is a rights milestone, not a construction decision: the project still needs its construction financing package, and the history of North American graphite projects is that leases and permits arrive well before the capital does. What the lease changes is the sequence: with mining rights secured, financing and offtake are now the only gates left.