Northern Graphite announces senior management changes
Northern Graphite Corp. [NGC-TSXV; NGPHF-OTCQB] has announced a strategic reorganization of its upper management team to enhance operational efficiencies and better align sales strategy with growing demand for graphite in the battery sector.
Effective immediately, the company said oversight of all operations, including the company’s Lac des Iles graphite mine will be consolidated under Maximillian Meier, Vice-President, Operations and Engineering. NGC Battery Materials. Meier will assume the role of Interim Chief Operating Officer, succeeding Kirsty Liddicoat, who is returning to Australia after two years with Northern Graphite.
In parallel, the company is consolidating all sales functions under Michael Grimm, President of NGC Battery Materials, who has been appointed Chief Sales Officer. The move ensures a unified approach to serving traditional industrial customers and to pursuing expanding opportunities in markets for anode material for lithium-ion batteries as well as next generation battery chemistries.
“Thes adjustments reflect our broader strategy to flatten the organization, reduce complexity and enhance our ability to respond swiftly to the damands of a rapidly evolving market,’’ said Northern Graphite CEO Hugues Jacquemin.
On Monday, Northern Graphite shares eased 11.1% or $0.015 to 12 cents and trade in a 52-week range of 21 cents and $0.045.
Northern Graphite recently announced plans to pause operations at its Lac des Iles (LDI) processing facility in order to complete repairs and maintenance and enable the mill to increase throughput to meet growing demand for natural graphite sourced outside China.
The shutdown began on November 2, 2024\, with production estimated to resume on January 6, 2025. The company said it will seek to mitigate any disruptions by supplying customers from existing inventories and from third parties.
“In order to ensure increased, stable production in 2025 and beyond that can keep up with the rising market demand, we have decided to move forward the time frame for a maintenance and repair shutdown,’’ said Jacquemin. “Lac des Iles has the potential to produce more and for longer than anticipated when we acquired the mine in 2022, and we need to prepare as we look to open a new pit and increase throughput at the mill.’’
The company said growing output from the cornerstone LDI mine is critical to its strategy as it works toward becoming a vertically integrated, mine to market supplier to traditional downstream customers and to the emerging market for battery anode material (BAM) as well as the next generation of solid-state battery chemistries. The company moved the LDI plant to a seven-day-a-week schedule in April of this year, boosting output by 59% over subsequent months, and plans to increase output further after the plan reopens in January.
The company’s mining division was recently running operational scenarios to open a new pit after a successful 2023 drilling campaign and a new resource estimate showed potential to significantly extend the mine life of LDI. The company is also planning a second drilling program with the goal of further expanding resources to increase production.