Drilling confirms potential to extend life of Lac des Iles Mine

"The news around Lac des Iles keeps on getting better," said Northern Chief Executive Officer Hugues Jacquemin. "The LDI property hosts the only producing, permitted graphite mine, processing plant and tailings facility in North America. LDI, as a decades-long producing mine, represents a very valuable and strategic asset given the environmental, regulatory and First Nations consultation timelines for new projects. Our objective is to continue to build this cornerstone asset by expanding production through the development of satellite deposits in order to supply the rapidly growing battery/EV markets."

Northern Graphite Corporation is pleased to announce the completion of a drilling campaign at its Lac des Iles ("LDI") mine that confirms the potential to extend the life of what is North America's only significant producer of natural graphite as the EV revolution unfolds. 

"The second half of the drilling program has confirmed the potential for near surface resources that we can extract in the short term," said Northern Chief Operating Officer Kirsty Liddicoat. "We were able to identify good grade that is shallow, including a near-surface, thicker seam of graphite mineralization."

The drilling program, which began in May of 2023 and saw a total of 88 holes for 7,890 metres drilled, demonstrated significant, near-surface graphite mineralization and revealed that it is still open at depth. The Company embarked on the drilling within the existing mine lease after a detailed review of historical studies and mine plans, supported by an airborne geophysical survey, identified a number of target zones, many of which have yet to be drilled. Results from the first phase of the program were disclosed in a news release dated August 2, 2023, after 43 holes for 4,081 metres were drilled.

In addition to the potential larger mineralized zone to the west (as indicated by geophysics) and below the current pit identified in the first phase of drilling, the second half of the drilling program has shown strong potential for good near-surface mineralization, with a number of seams showing the tendency to merge near surface. Both the thickness of the seams and the grades seen indicate the potential for an extension to mining operations in the near term. Mineralization remains open to the north and south.

Northern acquired LDI in April 2022 and financed the current drilling program from the proceeds of a $2.25 million charity flow-through private placement. The program's target zones on the LDI property (located 180 km northwest of Montreal) included the northern extension of the pit, mineralization in the west side of the pit wall and numerous electromagnetic conductors.

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