Carney Announces Start of Construction at ‘Largest Graphite Mine’ in G7

Prime Minister Mark Carney said construction is beginning on what he says will be the largest graphite mine in the G7.

The Nouveau Monde Graphite’s Matawinie Mine in Québec will supply up to 106,000 tonnes of graphite annually over 25 years, which Carney told reporters on May 19 is “eight times Canada’s total graphite production right now.” He said the mine would attract $2 billion of investment to Canada.

The graphite will be used for advanced manufacturing, defence technologies, energy storage systems, and electric vehicle batteries, according to a government press release.

The mine will also be integrated with a battery material plant located nearby in Bécancour, Que., becoming Canada’s first integrated graphite operation, the release said. Both the mine and processing facilities will be powered by hydroelectricity.

The prime minister said the federal government has also signed a purchasing agreement for 30,000 tonnes of graphite over a seven-year period to give the mine “certainty in a world where there’s almost no certainty.”

Carney said construction on the mine is beginning around six months after it was first referred to the Major Projects Office (MPO). When a reporter asked Carney why the mine had been added to the MPO when it appeared that the mine already had the necessary permits in 2021, Carney said this was done to “expedite” the project’s implementation.

Carney said the MPO brought together four federal departments to coordinate help with financing and the permitting and approval processes.

When announcing the mine’s referral to the MPO in November 2025, the government said construction would begin in 2026, and the mine would start production by the middle of 2028. The Liberal government also said the mine is part of the G7’s Critical Minerals Production Alliance (CMPA).

The Canada-led CMPA, announced at the June 2025 G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis, Alta., is meant to accelerate the development of projects that supply critical minerals for advanced manufacturing and defence.

During a post-meeting media briefing on May 19 at the G7 finance ministers’ and central bank governors’ meeting in Paris, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure announced that the G7 is extending the CMPA.

Lescure said the alliance will “put together a plan that’s going to be very concrete on building stockpiles, on traceability of value chain, on structuring information sharing among us, on mobilizing multilateral development banks and the private sector to boost investment.”