Quebec powers up to meet battery demand
Source: Alisha Hiyate · CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL · | October 8, 2021
Provincial critical metals plan includes focus on recycling, circular economy
Source: Matawinie has a mine life of 25.5 years, with production expected in 2023. CREDIT: NOUVEAU MONDE GRAPHITE
Nouveau Monde Graphite plans to build its Matawinie graphite mine in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, 120 km north of Montreal, Que. as a zero-emissions mine. This is already a big deal, considering large electric haul trucks the company needs aren’t yet commercially available (it’s working with equipment manufacturer Caterpillar to have a complete electrified fleet ready before year five of the operation). But considering that most of its production will be aimed at the electric vehicle market – a sector that’s a crucial part of the global energy transition away from fossil fuels – this makes perfect sense.
However, the company is also going a step further. Realizing that the volume of battery metals needed is far greater than reserves, the junior is already planning to incorporate graphite recycled from spent lithium ion batteries into its product.
Of all of the five key battery minerals – graphite, lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese – demand is projected to grow most strongly for graphite. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence has estimated demand for natural flake graphite will grow by 410% by 2030 to 3.9 million tonnes, up from 771,000 tonnes in 2020.
Nouveau Monde president and CEO Eric Desaulniers says that to electrify all 1 billion cars that now exist, we would need around 100 million tonnes of processed graphite over the next 20 years or so. “That’s more than all the reserves discovered in the history of humanity. We need to recycle that 100 million tonnes in the market at some point because it’s a non-renewable resource,” he says.
In June, Nouveau Monde and fellow Quebec company Lithion Recycling announced a collaboration for the recovery and reuse of graphite from lithium-ion batteries. (Lithion has developed an innovative hydrometallugical process to recycle batteries and recover 95% of the materials.)