Nouveau Monde raises $297M as Italy’s Eni takes stake

Nouveau Monde Graphite (NYSE: NMG; TSX: NOU) is raising $297 million (C$413 million) in a transaction that will see Italian energy giant Eni buy a 12% stake to help the Canadian developer advance its proposed Matawinie mine in Quebec towards a final investment decision. The stock plunged.

ENI is paying $70 million for its equity share, along with investments of $82 million by the Canada Growth Fund and $61 million by Investissement Québec, Nouveau Monde said late Thursday in a statement. Nouveau Monde will sell the investors 115.8 million common shares at a price of $1.84 – a 22% discount to Thursday’s closing price of $2.35 in U.S. trading.

The deal – which also includes an $84 million bought-deal public offering – represents the final step in assembling a broader $633 million project financing package that combines senior debt, equity investments and public‑market capital. Canada Growth Fund will become Nouveau Monde’s biggest shareholder with a stake of about 20% once the deal closes, while Investissement Québec will own about 18%, CEO Eric Desaulniers said Friday.

“The most exciting part this transaction is seeing a large industrial player like ENI with big ambitions getting involved in the development of a critical minerals project. Maybe it’s a way for the future,” Desaulniers told The Norther Miner in an interview Friday.

U.S. traded shares of Nouveau Monde plunged 22% to $1.85 Friday morning, cutting the company’s market capitalization to about $298 million. In Toronto trading, they dropped 22% to C$2.56 apiece.

Nouveau Monde’s equity raise comes less than a month after Export Development Canada and the Canada Infrastructure Bank jointly committed C$335 million in senior debt to fund the project through its construction, development and commissioning. Matawinie — which has an estimated capital cost of $421 million, according to a feasibility study issued in March 2025 — was referred to the federal Major Projects Office in November.

Battery plant

Participants in the public offering are evenly split between Canadian, U.S. and international investors, Desaulniers said.

“The interest seems to be global,” he said. “All the G7 countries understand the importance of financing such an important critical mineral project.”

Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance development of Matawinie and the company’s Bécancour, Que. anode material plant, which will form an integrated North American supply chain for lithium-ion batteries.

Located in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, about 120 km north of Montréal, Matawinie is expected to become the largest graphite operation in North America and a cornerstone asset in Canada’s critical minerals strategy as governments and industry work to secure domestic supply chains for battery materials.

Matawinie is designed as a large-scale open-pit operation producing high-purity natural graphite that will be powered by Quebec’s hydroelectric grid. The mine will supply feedstock to Nouveau Monde’s planned Bécancour facility, supporting electric vehicle and energy storage markets.

Although the March 2025 feasibility study pegged the total capex for the mine and plant at $1.33 billion, Nouveau Monde has since scaled back Bécancour’s projected capacity to about 13,000 tonnes a year. This would reduce the overall investment to about $630 million, Desaulniers said in the interview.

Nouveau Monde acquired a 143,000 sq. metre brownfield site in Bécancour about two months ago to build a first production capacity of active anode material dedicated to Panasonic Energy. The industrial building should enable the company to lower infrastructure costs and optimize capital expenditures.

Study update

Saint-Michel-des-Saints-based Nouveau Monde is updating its feasibility study and advancing procurement negotiations with key equipment suppliers. It’s aiming to make a final investment decision and construction decision in this year’s second half.

Strategic shareholders Panasonic and Mitsui & Co. have indicated their intention to vote in favour of the Matawinie mine transaction, which remains subject to shareholder approval, Nouveau Monde said. A vote is expected in the second half of May.

Canada is the only G7 country producing the mineral commercially, federal Energy and Mining Minister Tim Hodgson noted last month. 

Titan Mining (TSX: TI; NYSE-A: TII) has begun producing graphite concentrate at a small demonstration plant in New York, but large-scale commercial supply remains years away.