How one Quebec company could help boost Canadian self-reliance

A Quebec mine is getting ready to start producing graphite, a critical mineral used in the EV battery and defence industry, but the mine is not quite there yet.

Saints-Michel-des-Saints is a small village where snowmobiles roam on the edge of Quebec’s vast forests. Its critical mineral deposits could now put it on the map of a new world order the Canadian government is vying to build, one in which Canada is more self-reliant.

One Quebec-based company, coincidentally called Nouveau Monde Graphite, which translates to New World Graphite in English, is planning to open both a mine and plant to produce the mineral used in sectors like battery manufacturing for electric vehicles (EVs), as well as and defence.

“The benefits of our project to Canada, and all the G7 countries, is to have a stable source of this critical mineral, but also at the right price point,” said CEO and founder Eric Desaulniers. “Here in Canada – in Quebec specifically – we can be very competitive in that market.”

For now, Asia dominates the market. To go full steam ahead, the mine must finalize its financing, and that is taking up a lot of Desaulniers’ time now.

Antoine Cloutier is a project geologist with Nouveau Monde Graphite. He says the eureka moment for this project came more than a decade ago during exploration.

“That was pretty much the moment when our metal detectors and all the equipment started beeping through a fairly large area,” he said. “That was the moment when we saw there was truly potential for this to be big.”

Cloutier say graphite is a versatile mineral which has a “thousand and one uses.”

“It is used in lithium-ion batteries, as well as in defence, in aerospace and in manufacturing,” he said.

In November 2025, Ottawa recognized the mine as a “Major Project of National Interest.” That nation-building designation is given to high-priority projects and provides accelerated regulatory approval.

Both the federal government and Quebec have invested, but the company faced some setbacks in financing last year, as the growth of EV battery vehicles slowed and some other companies in the supply chain faltered. U.S. tariffs may also be a barrier.

“We have a lot of discussions with other G7 countries in Europe,” said Desaulniers. “Now the world is forcing us to look at other places to sell our production, which is a very good diversification strategy.”

Desaulniers says he is hopeful the company will be set to begin ramping up to commercial production within months.

The graphite deposits lie on ancestral land of the Atikamekw First Nation of Manawan. The community opposed the mine at first, but has since struck an Impact Benefits Agreement with Nouveau Monde Graphite.

Some in the region still oppose the project, fearing environmental fallout. But Mario Venne, the mayor of Saint-Michel-des-Saints, says the mine has worked with the town and answered many of the residents’ concerns.

He is hopeful the project will get off the ground and bring good paying jobs to a region that was hard hit by U.S. tariffs in the forestry sector.

“It could help Saints-Michel-des-Saints bloom,” said Venne, adding that over several years, the town’s population has dwindled, and that it needs about 100 families to settle back in to support the local infrastructure.

The mine’s economic impact could attract some of the young people, who left in search of employment, to return to their roots in the community.

Kevin Ducharme moved to the region several years ago, in large part drawn by its lakes and forests. Now he is the mine’s environmental director.

“It’s normal that some residents have concerns with a project like this,” he said. “We are not in a mining region; people are not used to seeing mines.”

But Ducharme says it was important to explain how the mine would operate, and that it is banking on the best environmental mining practices and the best monitoring systems.

Nouveau Monde Graphite did not expropriate any homes near the vast mine land, but offered concerned owners nearby to buy their properties. The company says it paid nearly $4.4 million for nearby real estate. One of the buildings that now belongs to Nouveau Monde Graphite is a cottage, which is now used as an office.

“Having a relationship with the community is key,” he said.

A test mine is up and running, but the target date for commercial extraction is, for now, set for 2028.