RE:NOU News!!!!Nouveau Monde Graphite published its 2020 goals this morning. They also list a recap of their 2019 achievements.
Lots of things are going on at the demo plant to produce flakes but also to setup the value-added line for making graphite anode material. Look at the picture they published of a semi-truck loaded with 1-ton bags. They also say that sales of flakes are ramping up.
I know by talking with these guys that they were able to attract very strong talent to their technical and executive teams. One guy has previous experience with Arcelormittal where he was instrumental in building a mine with a budget capex of more than $1B.
All in all, I’m pleased with the progress at the project site, but I was counting on the share price to be trading at a much higher price at this step in development of the business. I mean the market cap is still only $50M while the after-tax NPV is $750M and that’s only for the mining operations as if all the production would be sold as flakes. It’s been a very tough two years in the battery material space. Things will eventually turn around. Just look at the success of Tesla and all those new EVs that are hitting the market in 2020. There is a huge need for battery materials.
They write that they will update their resource following extensive drilling that took place over the last year. This will likely impact positively the NPV if they increase the expected production. They also have yet to incorporate into the NPV the value-added products. I think that will happen when they have finished setting up the graphite anode line in the demo plant and they have a very good understanding of the costs of setting this up commercially.
https://nouveaumonde.ca/en/press/pivotal-year-for-nouveau-monde-graphite-2020-goals-permitting-construction-start-and-vap/