Northern Graphite Corp.
About
Northern Graphite Corporation is an Ottawa-based Canadian mine development company that is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "NGC" and also trades on the OTCBB under the symbol "NGPHF".
Northern’s principal asset is the Bissett Creek graphite project located 100km east of North Bay, Ontario and 15km from the Trans Canada highway. Bissett Creek is a large flake, high purity, scalable deposit that is located close to major roads, a natural gas pipeline and other infrastructure and will have very competitive operating costs. The Company has completed an NI 43-101 bankable final feasibility study and expects to complete the environmental and mine permitting process in the fourth quarter, 2012. Northern anticipates that it will be in a position to begin construction of the mine in the 4Q, 2012, subject to the availability of financing.
Graphite prices have almost tripled since 2005 due to the ongoing industrialization of China, India and other emerging economies and resultant strong demand from traditional steel and automotive markets. However, new applications such as lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells, vanadium redox batteries and nuclear power have the potential to create significant, incremental demand growth in the future. For example, it takes 30 to 40 times more graphite than lithium to manufacture lithium-ion batteries. The use of li-ion batteries is growing rapidly in consumer electronics, they are now becoming popular in power tools and motor scooters, and growth will continue with the increased use of hybrid and all electric automobiles. While graphite prices have softened in recent months due to weakness in the European, US and Chinese economies, the supply situation will be more severe when economies rebound as a limited amount of new production capacity has been brought on stream in response to the supply shortage in this cycle.
China produces 70% of the world’s graphite and is seeing production and export growth leveling off, costs increasing and quality declining. As a result, export taxes and a licensing system have been instituted and graphite and the rare earth elements now share the same "security of supply" issues. For these reasons, the European Union and the USA have both named graphite a supply critical mineral.
With limited worldwide exploration and few potential development projects on the horizon, the Company is well positioned to benefit from the continued improvement in graphite demand and prices.