Northern Graphite (TSXV: NGC, OTCQB: NGPHF) CEO Hugues Jacquemin

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Welcome to another episode of the Mining & Markets podcast by Senergy Capital

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For those of you who are frequent listeners, thank you so much for tuning in again today

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And for those of you just listening in for the first time

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This is a recurring podcast where we feature different CEOs

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And C-suite executives from the junior mining and resources space

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Today I’m here with a very special guest, his name is Hugues Jacquemin

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He’s the CEO of Northen Graphite Corp.

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A Canadian miner of graphite and an industry veteran

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With about a decade of experience in the business, before the world even started to talk about the energy transition

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And what it meant for critical minerals such as graphite.

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Hugues, is a pleasure to have you on the show, welcome!

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Thank you, Aleem. Thank you
you for having me.

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Great to be here.

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Let’s jump straight into it
with a hard hitting question.

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We are hearing a lot
about the energy transition,

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the green revolution, the race to net zero
and everything in between.

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We’re also hearing a lot about critical
minerals, especially and most

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commonly lithium in rare earths,
but not so much about graphite.

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It seems to fly a little bit
under the radar,

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and I’m not quite sure why that is given
the necessary role in the EV battery.

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What are your thoughts on this
and why is graphite

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not getting the attention
that it deserves?

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Oh, it’s a very good question.

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Aleem, especially when we are talking
about booming demand for electric vehicle.

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I mean, graphite is really the,
The untold, critical minerals story.

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If you think about it.

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You know,
just about any automaker you can name

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is talking
about producing electric vehicles

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and about all the critical minerals
they’re going to need to do that.

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And you’re right,
we hear about lithium all the time.

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But graphite is untold,
when people realize how important it is.

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Let me give you a couple of facts.

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The first one is graphite makes up more
than half the weight of an EV battery

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and far more than any of the other
battery components. In fact,

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There isn’t enough graphite
in North America

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to supply the plans of our automakers,
especially with the ambition of our

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government in Canada and the United States
to source critical minerals locally.

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According to the most conservative
industry estimates, graphite production

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is going to have to increase
five or six times the current levels

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in order to satisfy demand
from EV battery production alone.

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And that doesn’t even take into account
all the different other uses

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that there is for graphite
and nearly all the graphite.

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What is currently produced
today is produced in China,

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and with the way geopolitics are going,

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supply chain pressures
and the focus on near-shoring

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North
America really wants to secure the supply,

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and that means sourcing locally,
not from China.

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And there’s very little graphite

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coming out of the ground
in this part of the world.

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Northern Graphite owns
the only significant producing

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graphite mine in North America today.

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Wow. That’s very interesting.

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Let’s let’s talk a little bit
about the geopolitics a little bit more.

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Why are they so important for the Northern
Graphite story in general and why now?

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It’s really a number of different factors
that come into play with the new world

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Order that’s being decided
when it comes to critical minerals.

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Supply and processing are very critical.

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First of all, you know,
we have the energy transition

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climate change
and the race for the net zero by 2050.

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That’s driving a lot of it.

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We have also near shoring as North
America moves to guarantee

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of supplies of critical minerals
and reduce its dependance on China.

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And we have a drive for sustainable mining
that does as little harm

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to the environment as possible.

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What we’ve seen

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is that the US and the Canadian government
step up to the plate with tax incentives

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and other stimulus
to drive a critical minerals strategy.

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And all of this points to good news story
to producers of all battery minerals

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in North America,
and especially significant

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for graphite because of how complex it is
to mine and produce

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the graphite mining is not something
that is linear.

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You just don’t pull it out of the ground
and mine it.

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It needs to be mined.

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Processed, to respect of what is being used

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by each individual client
and the expertise to do

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that is not readily available
outside of China.

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Graphite is really the new world mineral
and it’s changing the mining industry.

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This is why graphite is going to be
in very tight supply going forward.

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Let’s dive into demand a little bit.

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You know, is it all about EVs
and battery minerals or are there

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other roles that graphite plays
within the entire energy transition realm?

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Well, you know, the the big demand story
for graphite is, of course, driven

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with what’s been happening in the market
and with battery minerals.

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However, it’s much bigger than that.

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This is all about the energy transition
and the biggest shift

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in the global economy
since the industrial revolution.

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What do we mean by that?

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It’s about why you can electrification.

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If you think about all the actions
that are being taken, the use of materials

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that are less polluting
and more conductive, you remember that

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graphite is lighter

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and more conductive and copper,
it’s all about all the knock on changes

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that will come as we shift
how we produce and consume energy.

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Graphite has applications everywhere.

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It’s in the screens of the mobile phone

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we have in our pocket,
in the television, on our walls.

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I mean, there’s a lot more to graphite
demand and just EVs.

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So where does northern graphite
come into the picture?

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What’s northern graphite value proposition
in this world that you’re describing?

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Well, why don’t we start with the basics?

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You know, we are, number one,
the only significant producer of natural

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graphite in North America
and have been for the last 30 years.

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That means
that we are actually mining the graphite

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and we actually have customers.

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We are the largest producer

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and distributor of natural graphite
outside of China.

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We have been in the business
for 30 years and we have the people

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and the expertise
to supply the booming market.

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We have a very established growth strategy
with another mine

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in Namibia
that will come back online in 2024.

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It’s called Okanjande

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And we also have what can be considered
the most advanced graphite project

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in North America.

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The project is called Bissett Creek
and it’s in northern Ontario.

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So just for starters, we have a plan
that is not just in place in motion

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to become an integrated downstream
supplier to the battery

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That means that we are preparing
to service the booming demand

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for battery minerals
and you don’t have to go far into the news

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each day
to see something about another OEM

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and its plans to produce electric vehicles
or their components.

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Our battery
anode material plant

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will have 200,000 tons of capacity and
it will be the largest in North America.

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We are significantly distant
to our peers, even though we are further

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along than most with actual production
and established customer base.

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Okay.

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You mentioned that you have customers,

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which is obviously quite unique
compared to I mean, you know,

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some of the other guests
that I have on the show

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who are typically in early exploration
stages, sometimes even with their own resource.

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Why is having customers a differentiator
between junior mining companies

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And is this something that investors
should pay attention to?

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I guess my question is, you know,
if there’s so much demand out there,

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you’d think that getting customers
should not be an issue

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for a producer like northern Graphite
or is that not so much the case?

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I mean, it really goes back to what I said
earlier.

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You know,
graphite is not just a commodity.

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Like most of the metals
that you’re talking about.

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The graphite is actually sold to companies
that basically transform

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the graphite into a material
for a specific application.

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And therefore,
each application is very specific

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as to what
the properties of graphite needs to be.

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So you can’t just produce graphite
and sell it on an open market.

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You have to have the expertise to mine
it properly and then to process it

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to the specification of our customers who
have very stringent and demanding needs.

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And to do all that, you need to have
the expertise that is in very short supply

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because so few operating graphite mines
exist outside of China.

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So the institutional knowledge around
graphite mining is just not the way

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it is in any other commodities
like copper or nickel or gold.

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Developing a reliable, cost
effective, clean,

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purified solutions for graphite
is absolutely key.

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You have to be able to mine it, and mill it,
and shape it, and coat it

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and we have the technology and
the expertise to go from mine to market.

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That’s great.

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Let’s switch focus a little bit.

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Earlier this year,

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you guys announced the acquisition
of a company called NeoGraf

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Can you tell my listeners about NeoGraf

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and why it’s important
to your overall strategy?

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That’s a very good question.

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You know, NeoGraf was a customer of ours

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for more than 30 years,
but they’ve been into the business

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functionalized in graphite

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for a number of different applications
for more than 130 years.

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They were part of the old Union
Carbide company.

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And basically what they do
is they take the graphite flakes

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and then they functionalize it
in order to make foils

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to produce intercalated flakes.

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They actually expand those flakes
and then they may have a material down

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and they make a nano carbon material
which can be referred to as graphene.

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And they take this material
and they basically make parts

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that will be used
in a number of different processes

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to, for example,
provide thermal management properties

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to a cell phone
or high definition television or laptop.

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They produce sensors that can be
integrated into the construction

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of a battery in order to ensure
that the temperature measurement

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that’s done on
the battery happens very, very science.

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In order to be able to shut the battery
down in terms of thermal runaway.

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So, you know,
they can sell material into homes

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in order to improve the home
or insulation properties of the home.

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They even have an application where
they intercalate the graphite with acid

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and they they produce a type of film
that you can wrap around wooden poles

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at one of the electricity poles,
which would allow them to protect the pole

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in case of of a forest fire
and ensure that the electricity

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doesn’t get interrupted
in case the fire burns to the pole down

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and the electric line falls.

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So, you know,
they have a very broad range of products

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and they have a very broad range
of applications.

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And these materials that they produce,
they actually sell into the marketplace

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at a much of a premium
because they are quite unique.

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They have more than 100 patterns.

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And the materials
that they sell has a very high value

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in terms of the application
that it delivers.

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And so the strategy for us
was to get much closer by acquiring them

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so that we could
then have direct access to their

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processes to the products that they make
and have a much closer connection

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with the end use customers
that uses these products

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and most of the applications
that they’re connected to are applications

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that will grow
with the electrification of the world.

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And so our strategy is to move downstream,
to acquire the technology,

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to know how and the product technology
that you need to be able

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to supply these applications
and then benefit from the growth of these

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applications and much higher margins
as the world continues to get electrified.

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And that fits very well with the strategy
I was talking about before.

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And therefore you know, this application
is really fundamental for us and,

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you know, everything they do is really
leveraging the properties of graphite,

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which is basically almost as conductive
as copper but five times lighter.

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And I think it’s going to be
a game changer for us.

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And this is not, you know, in
lieu of what we’re doing in the EV market,

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it’s very much complementary
to what we’re doing in the EV market.

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So we’re very excited
by combining our businesses

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and working together to grow the market
and to benefit

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from the growth of the market
once the electrification and becomes

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much more prevalent throughout the world.

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Right.

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You know,
so given everything that you’ve said

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on this podcast, it’s clear
that there’s a huge need for graphite.

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You know,

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why do you think that more folks aren’t
investing or understanding

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the need for graphite?

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And why do you think
that northern graphite

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is trading at a discount
compared to some of the peers?

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Yeah, it’s a great question.

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You know, I’ve been in the graphite
business for more than ten years now, and

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it’s quite interesting to think, you know,
what happened in the last ten years.

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I mean, ten years ago, lithium
ion batteries were predominantly used in

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cell phones and the entire industry

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was about 2 gigawatt/hour of capacity.

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If you think about it, you know, it’s
a very small amount of batteries

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that were sold back then.

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And what’s really changed
is that, you know, the electric vehicle

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industry has expecting
to have a huge amount of growth.

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And if you think about it today, you know,
a standard Gigafactory

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will produce 50 gigawatt/hour
and we’re talking about

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having hundreds of these factories
being built around the world

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and to have a full capacity of 7 terawatt in total.

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So, you know, the growth of the graphite
industry is going to be tremendous

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and has been tremendous
in the last ten years.

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But but it will be much more exponential
moving forward.

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But, you know, what is happening
in the market is that most of the graphite

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produced for these applications today
have been mined and processed in China.

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Very few companies like ours are actually
mining and producing outside of China.

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And what’s happened is that it
hasn’t been that

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visible and it’s going to start
to become more visible.

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And of course, you know, one of the reason
why the folks that are investing

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are not aware of this,

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and that’s one of the reasons
why the stock hasn’t really taken off.

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But of course, you know, part of it is
we are also at the bottom of a very

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beaten up stock market.

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And, you know, we need to do
a much better job of telling our story.

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That’s part of why you and I
are having this conversation today is,

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you know, we need to do more
to tell the story of graphite.

00;14;02;04 – 00;14;04;06
We need to do more to tell our story.

00;14;04;15 – 00;14;07;26
We have a lot of plans on the table
and we need to show the market

00;14;07;26 – 00;14;09;12
how we plan to execute.

00;14;09;12 – 00;14;11;06
And we are starting to do that.

00;14;11;06 – 00;14;14;26
And we may have seen that
just a few days ago

00;14;14;26 – 00;14;18;10
when we announced new drilling
and our Lac des Iles mine in Quebec,

00;14;18;10 – 00;14;20;16
in eastern Canada,
that we are very optimistic.

00;14;20;16 – 00;14;24;19
It’s a great property
and the owners of that mine

00;14;24;19 – 00;14;28;08
really underinvested in exploration
over the last few years.

00;14;28;08 – 00;14;29;27
And we are very optimistic

00;14;29;27 – 00;14;33;24
that new drilling will show a way
to extend the mine’s life and help us produce

00;14;33;24 – 00;14;37;27
more natural graphite from our ion battery
anode material plant in Baie-Comeau

00;14;38;01 – 00;14;41;08
And we are working on the reopening
of our Namibian mine,

00;14;41;08 – 00;14;44;16
which will help us supply markets
in North America and Europe.

00;14;44;16 – 00;14;46;05
So we have a very strong story,

00;14;46;05 – 00;14;49;09
but we need to get out there,
tell the story, educate the market

00;14;49;17 – 00;14;53;16
and make sure people understand
the value of the graphite

00;14;53;16 – 00;14;55;08
and investing in the space.

00;14;55;08 – 00;14;57;09
So all of that leads to my next question.

00;14;57;10 – 00;15;00;20
You know, what are some upcoming catalysts
that investors and people

00;15;00;20 – 00;15;02;22
who are interested in northern graphite
can look forward to?

00;15;02;24 – 00;15;06;13
Well, as I said, you know,
I think some of the catalyst are

00;15;06;21 – 00;15;10;06
the work that we’re doing in Lac-des-Îles
to extend the mine life

00;15;10;14 – 00;15;14;01
The other catalyst
is restarting our facility

00;15;14;08 – 00;15;17;18
in Namibia because that will bring
additional capacity.

00;15;17;18 – 00;15;23;17
In addition to that, we are working hard
to bring our Bissett Creek project online.

00;15;23;20 – 00;15;27;19
And in order to do that,
we’re finalizing the permitting and

00;15;27;19 – 00;15;32;00
getting ready to get the engineering done
and to do all of these projects.

00;15;32;02 – 00;15;36;27
You know, we’re also intending
to apply to a lot of incentives

00;15;36;27 – 00;15;40;14
that are being put forward by the Canadian
and the US government in order

00;15;40;14 – 00;15;44;18
to get some of those funding in order
to move our project forward.

00;15;44;18 – 00;15;51;10
Watching what we’re doing in our Baie-Comeau
facility in northern Quebec is also key.

00;15;51;10 – 00;15;54;19
The closing of our transaction
for NeoGraf

00;15;54;19 – 00;15;58;16
And on top of that, of course,
you know the activities

00;15;58;16 – 00;16;02;23
that we have in the market
in order to to penetrate the EV business

00;16;02;24 – 00;16;05;23
and the development
that we can do in order

00;16;05;23 – 00;16;10;00
to secure some supply
in the electric vehicle business.

00;16;10;00 – 00;16;12;10
So as it starts to take off in the U.S.

00;16;12;10 – 00;16;16;25
in 2025 and 2026, I think those are
some of the major catalysts

00;16;16;25 – 00;16;21;03
And lastly, you guys recently closed
a $2.25 million financing.

00;16;21;03 – 00;16;22;00
You know, given that,

00;16;22;00 – 00;16;24;24
can you talk a little bit
about the share structure, post financing?

00;16;25;00 – 00;16;25;06
Yeah.

00;16;25;06 – 00;16;31;22
I mean, we have you know, today we have
about 128 million shares outstanding.

00;16;31;22 – 00;16;36;13
I think our stock was trading at around
$0.38, $0.39 today.

00;16;36;22 – 00;16;40;05
So we have a market cap
right around 60 million CAD.

00;16;40;05 – 00;16;43;06
We do have quite a few warrants
outstanding

00;16;43;13 – 00;16;47;02
which will expire somewhen in April of next year.

00;16;47;02 – 00;16;50;28
If these warrants get exercised,
you know, we could generate

00;16;50;28 – 00;16;54;26
about $30 million
of additional cash for the company.

00;16;54;29 – 00;16;59;05
We have a large amount of retail
shareholders that have been

00;16;59;05 – 00;17;03;02
with the company for a long time,
and we don’t really have any large

00;17;03;11 – 00;17;05;26
institutional shareholders
in the company yet.

00;17;06;04 – 00;17;09;05
But we are we’re working
hard to be able to attract

00;17;09;21 – 00;17;12;06
some of these investors into the business.

00;17;12;11 – 00;17;16;00
You know, we’ve only been telling
our story as the new Northern Graphite

00;17;16;00 – 00;17;20;26
since we closed the acquisition
of the Imerys mines back in April of last year.

00;17;20;26 – 00;17;24;23
So we’re still very much
at the beginning of our transformation.

00;17;24;26 – 00;17;29;16
So we’re quite excited with the prospects
moving forward and we look forward

00;17;29;16 – 00;17;30;07
to welcoming

00;17;30;07 – 00;17;34;08
a lot more investors into the business
as they grow and as we tell our story.

00;17;34;17 – 00;17;36;11
Hugues, thank you so much for your time
today.

00;17;36;11 – 00;17;36;18
You know,

00;17;36;18 – 00;17;38;09
it sounds like you have
a very exciting project

00;17;38;09 – 00;17;41;18
and I’m excited to see the story continue,
as well as continuing the conversation

00;17;41;18 – 00;17;42;11
around graphite.

00;17;42;11 – 00;17;44;29
For those still listening,
if you enjoyed this podcast episode

00;17;44;29 – 00;17;47;06
and you like learning about new companies
within the sector,

00;17;47;06 – 00;17;50;02
just like Northern Graphite,
make sure to follow us and subscribe.

00;17;50;03 – 00;17;50;26
Thank you Aleem!