NMG Files 2024 Financial Reports and Provides an Update on its Roadmap to FID for the Integrated Phase-2 Matawinie Mine and Bécancour Battery Material Plant

Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc.’s (“NMG” or the “Company”) (NYSE: NMG, TSX: NOU) filed its financial reports for the 2024 period, a year marked by the attainment of significant commercial, technical, and corporate milestones in the development of the Company’s ore-to-active-anode-material business model. With the issuance of the NI 43-101 Updated Technical Feasibility Study Report for the Matawinie Mine and Bécancour Battery Material Plant Integrated Graphite Projects (the “Updated Feasibility Study”), NMG is entering its project financing stage to reach the final investment decision (“FID”). The Company’s Anchor Customers, Panasonic Energy Co., Ltd. (“Panasonic Energy”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Panasonic Holdings Corporation (“Panasonic”) (TYO: 6752), and General Motors Holdings LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors Co. (collectively, “GM”) (NYSE: GM), along with institutional equity investors and potential lenders are already active with the project financing stage.

Arne H Frandsen, Chair of NMG, said: “NMG’s business model is rooted in the clean energy transition, striving to capitalize on Western economies’ growing appetite for critical minerals, local and ESG-compliant supply chains, as well as reshoring manufacturing capacity. Offtake agreements and equity investments from Anchor Customers coupled with placements from key shareholders and governmental funds have propelled our development this year. We are now moving toward FID to bring to commercial production one of North America’s first and largest fully integrated graphite production of active anode material.”

Eric Desaulniers, Founder, President, and CEO of NMG, declared: “2024 has been a year of unprecedented collaboration; I thank all those who contributed to our success. From derisking our projects and technologies to securing long-term collaboration with the Atikamekw First Nation, Panasonic and GM, we have laid a strong foundation on which to build our Phase-2 Matawinie Mine and Bécancour Battery Material Plant. Market conditions create a favorable landscape for our transition to commercial operations; we are eager to crystallize our project financing and construction plans.”

NMG’s 2024 Annual Report can be consulted at https://nmg.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/NMG-2024-Annual-Report.pdf

Roadmap to FID

Following active engineering, advancement in project design, refinement of technological, and updated financial modeling, the Company issued results of the Updated Feasibility Study. The study demonstrated NMG’s Phase-2 technical and economic viability, enabling the Company to enter its project financing stage with a view to FID.

The Company provides notice that the Updated Feasibility Study, with an effective date of March 25, 2025, has been filed with the securities commissions or securities regulatory authorities in each of the provinces of Canada, and with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. It is available under the Company’s profile on SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca) and EDGAR (www.sec.gov) and on NMG’s website.

The Updated Feasibility Study, which includes adjusted capital and operating expenditures, now enables NMG to enter its project financing stage in preparation for FID. To date, the Company has received cumulative expressions of interest from potential lenders, institutional equity investors and equity commitment of Anchor Customers for approximately $1.6 billion for its Phase-2 project financing. The Company is set to present to said financial partners the results of the Updated Feasibility Study, on-going due diligence exercises, and information on the project execution strategy and risk management, with a view to formalize their participation in the project financing.

The Updated Feasibility Study was among the key deliverables to GM and Panasonic to ensure that contractual components are aligned prior to launching Phase-2 construction and meeting all conditions of the Anchor Customers’ offtake obligations and additional equity subscription commitments. The Company and its Anchor Customers are working collaboratively toward FID and are in discussions to update the project timeline, including the satisfaction of the condition precedents and other project-related agreements.

As the Company advances financing and commercial activities, engineering, procurement, and construction preparation progress in parallel with NMG’s integrated project team. Detailed engineering of the Matawinie Mine support the preparation of purchase orders for vendor engineering and long-lead items. Additional procurement activities are being deployed in preparation of the first construction packages now ready for tendering, including direct meetings with local and Indigenous businesses representatives to document the capacity, service offerings, and availability of businesses in the region.

The Bécancour Battery Material Plant is now moving to detailed engineering, leveraging expertise from specialized consultants in graphite processing and seeking to refine environmental performance and operational parameters for the chemical purification technology. The procurement strategy for key technical expertise, specialized equipment, and long-lead items is progressing correspondingly.

Construction preparation is also advancing to outline the execution plan, detailed construction sequence and schedule, contracting strategy, as well as health and safety, environment, and quality programs. Following preparatory works, Phase-2 sites are ready for the start of construction, upon a positive FID, project financing, and construction authorizations.

Corporate & ESG Development

In January 2025, the Company uplisted to the Toronto Stock Exchange upon having met the necessary listing requirements

The Company is committed to the safe and responsible conduct of operations. For the twelve-month rolling period ended December 31, 2024, NMG reported a total recordable injury frequency rate (“TRIFR”) of 1.78 and severity rate of 2.67 at the Company’s facilities. In 2024, NMG maintained its track record with no major environmental incidents.

NMG has taken concrete steps to avoid, reduce, and fully offset its GHG emissions, confirming its carbon-neutral status and mapping its intended transition to Net Zero by 2030 (Scope 1, Scope 2, and some Scope 3 emissions). For 2024, the Company reports GHG emissions of 583 tonnes of CO2equivalent for carrying out its operations at its Phase-1 demonstration plants and corporate offices. NMG has purchased and retired VCS-certified carbon credits to offset this balance.

The Company ended the year with a cash position of $106 million.

Market Perspectives

Market conditions remain favorable to NMG’s business strategy as clean energy solutions continue to expand and manufacturers seek to secure critical materials close to their Western production facilities to reduce geopolitical risks, ease transportation and inventory management, and build resilience.

While growth varied across geographies in 2024, the global EV market saw a 25% year-over-year increase in sales (Rho Motion, January 2025), with a record 1.3 million units sold in the U.S. (Bloomberg, January 2025). Early 2025 data aligns with this megatrend, tallying a 22% year-over-year growth in the U.S. and Canada, and 18% in Europe thereby outpacing China (Reuters, February 2025). NMG’s customer GM reported significant progress on its EV strategy with rising sales (50% increase in the U.S., 109% increase in Canada) and doubled market share (GM, January 2025).

In parallel, renewable energy storage experienced sizable growth, supported in part by more than $2 trillion investments in the energy transition (BloombergNEF, January 2025). Some 205 GWh of storage were deployed globally in 2024 – a 111% year-over-year increase – with over 1 TWh planned of new capacity in the production pipeline by 2027 (Rho Motion, January 2025).

Market expansion in EVs and energy storage drives increased demand for battery production, and thus, battery materials. Graphite-based anode constitutes the standard across all lithium-ion battery chemistries; making graphite the most important material in batteries. Natural active anode material demand grew by 34% in 2024 with demand expected to reach 10,701,000 tpa in 2030 to supply the forecasted battery capacity of 9,584 GWh (Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, February 2025). NMG’s customer Panasonic Energy was the fourth largest cell supplier by battery capacity deployed in 2024 (Adamas Intelligence, February 2025).

Geopolitical measures targeting strategic trade activities are contributing to significant changes in the graphite market dynamics. Indeed, the International Energy Agency identified graphite as the most at-risk battery mineral due to the geographical concentration of mining and refining, the supply/demand balances, and the export risks of major suppliers (IEA, Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2024).

Reliability and resilience of supply chains are central to enabling the development of cleantech production in the Western World. NMG is positioned to capitalize on governments’ efforts to reshore manufacturing, secure the critical minerals needed, and reduce dependencies on competing economies. NMG’s customer Panasonic Energy reiterated its plans to build localized supply chains for its North American production (Reuters, January 2025).

Expanding on graphite export restrictions initiated in 2023, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce introduced additional controls on graphite including the ban of dual-use item exports for U.S. military and stricter end-use reviews (Fastmarkets and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, December 2024). All the while, the Trump Administration declared a “National Energy Emergency” and pointed to insufficient critical minerals mining and processing to support key energy and economic sectors (The White House, Declaring A National Energy Emergency Executive Order, January 2025). As part of its protectionism policies, the administration announced tariffs on goods imported into the U.S., namely 10% for critical minerals from Canada, and a general 20% additional to the existing 25% for graphite from China (total 45%). The U.S. International Trade Commission is investigating trade activities following a petition from the American Active Anode Material Producers seeking antidumping and countervailing duties on Chinese imports (Bloomberg, January 2025).

Nouveau Monde Graphite | www.nmg.com