Northern Graphite to develop carbon neutral project at Bissett Creek
Northern Graphite Corporation is pleased to announce that as part of meeting its environmental and social governance responsibilities, it has retained Minviro Ltd. to carry out a Life Cycle Assessment of the Bissett Creek graphite project. The LCA will quantify the Project's carbon footprint/global warming potential along with other potential impacts and assist in developing mitigation measures. It will also include a scenario analysis to aid in environmentally informed decision making with respect to various process options. Minviro will produce an ISO-compliant (ISO-14040/14044) report that will have been subjected to an external, third party review carried out by a panel of independent LCA experts from academia and industry. It is the Company's intention to make the final report publicly available.
The first part of the LCA will be a 'shovel-to-gate' study to quantify the potential environmental impacts of the Bissett Creek project and generate a detailed life cycle inventory of data (energy and material inputs and associated emissions) for the mining and concentrating of natural graphite ore. Data with respect to the Project's carbon footprint will distinguish between scope 1, 2 and upstream scope 3 emissions along it's value chain, and data will also be generated with respect to four other impact categories.
The scenario analyses will include evaluating the differences in environmental impact between using a diesel versus natural gas mining fleet, natural gas versus diesel power generation and natural gas power generation with a co-generation facility to dry the graphite using waste heat rather than diesel or electricity. The LCA will enable the Company to determine the mitigation measures and offsets required to operate the Bissett Creek Project on a carbon neutral basis.
The second part of the LCA is to benchmark the environmental impact of mining and concentrating natural graphite and upgrading it into battery anode material and comparing it with the production of synthetic graphite and upgrading it into battery anode material.
Gregory Bowes CEO commented that: "The EV and battery industries need to be transparent about the environmental impacts of producing both natural and synthetic graphite and manufacturing battery anode material therefrom. Graphite is the largest single component of a lithium ion battery by weight. The conversion from internal combustion engines to EVs will require multiples of current graphite production and the environmental implications need to be well understood. Northern intends to make Minviro's Report publicly available to lead and encourage discussion on such an important ESG issue."
About Northern Graphite
Northern Graphite is a mineral development and technology company focused on developing its Bissett Creek graphite deposit and upgrading mine concentrates into high value components used in lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles, fuel cells, graphene and other advanced technologies. An independent study estimates that Bissett Creek will have the highest margin of any existing or proposed graphite deposit due to its very favorable location, simple metallurgy and the high quality of its concentrates which the Company believes will provide a competitive advantage in manufacturing products for the green economy.
Bissett Creek is an advanced stage project with a full Feasibility Study and its major mining permit which puts the Company in position to make a construction decision, subject to financing. The Project is located in the southern part of Canada between the cities of North Bay and Ottawa and close to the Trans-Canada highway providing ready access to labour, supplies, equipment, natural gas and markets.
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