Last year Northern Graphite (CVE:NGC) leap frogged from a company holding an advanced asset to now being the biggest graphite producer in North America, said Gregory Bowes, CEO and director.

Bowes spoke to Kitco on Tuesday.

Graphite is enjoying an upswing due to energy transition. Graphite is the anode in a lithium ion battery and its single-largest component. On average, a plug-in EV has around 70 kg of graphite. With at least 125 million EVs expected globally by 2030, that’s more than 8 million tonnes of battery-ready graphite needed in the coming decade, according to Kitco commentator Richard Mills.

In December 2021 Northern Graphite acquired two graphite mines from Imerys SA: the Lac des Iles producing graphite mine in Quebec and the Okankande/Okorusu graphite producing operation in Namibia. The $55 million financing was a mixture of debt, financing and royalty agreements led by Sprott.

"It's a truly transformational acquisition for us," said Bowes. "We're going from having one advanced stage project in Ontario to being a producing company immediately. We're buying the only producing North American graphite mine, and we're buying a second mine from them in Namibia, which is on care and maintenance. We'll have it back online in nine to 12 months."

With the deal done the company touts 50,000tpy of graphite production capacity, plus two large development projects with 100,000tpy potential making it the third largest non-Chinese producer.

Follow Michael McCrae on Twitter: @michaelmccrae (https://twitter.com/michaelmccrae)
Follow Kitco Mining on Twitter: @KitcoMining (https://twitter.com/KitcoMining)