RE: RE: RE: New to this stock/commodity Northern Graphite's Bissett Creek graphite project has a number of significant advantages over other graphite deposits. It is located about two hours east of Ottawa, the nation's capital, and 10 miles from the TransCanada highway and associated natural gas pipeline, power lines and small communities where workers can live. It is five hours by truck from the port of Montreal and less than one day by truck from the major steel and automotive centers in the northeast United States.
Bissett Creek itself is a very large, low-grade deposit that is located right at the surface, which means it will be mined by simple open pit methods and will have a very low waste-to-ore ratio. It is also very flat lying and therefore production can be expanded by moving laterally rather than going deeper, which is much more expensive. North Graphite's original NI 43-101 report contemplated an operation producing 20,000 tons of graphite per year for over 40 years. Since that time, the resource has more than doubled and it is still open to the north and down dip. This indicates the deposit could support production of 70-80,000 tons per year and still have a mine life of more than 20 years. We do not know of any other graphite deposit in the world that has this degree of scalability and believe that at this production level it would be the largest graphite mine in the world. This feature should make it very attractive to potential strategic partners that want to secure a stable source of long-term supply to meet growing demand.
Another feature that makes Bissett Creek quite unique is that almost 100% of production will be large-flake (+80 mesh), high-purity graphite. Recent metallurgical test results have shown that 50% of production will be even larger, +48 mesh jumbo flake, which will result in premium pricing. We believe Bissett Creek will produce concentrates that have the highest average value per ton in the industry. While Bissett Creek will not be the lowest cost operation due to its relatively low grade, its near-surface nature and low strip ratio will help to balance this disadvantage out, meaning that costs will be in the middle of the pack. Bissett Creek should generate the highest margin per-ton of concentrate in the industry.