PREAMBLE
This Management Discussion and Analysis (“MD&A”) dated May 14, 2024, has been prepared according to Regulation 51-102 of the continuous disclosure requirements and approved by the Board of Directors of Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. (the “Company” or “NMG”).
This MD&A should be read in conjunction with the Company’s condensed consolidated interim unaudited financial statements for the three-month period ended March 31, 2024, and the consolidated audited financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2023, and December 31, 2022, and related notes. The Company’s consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”), as published by the International Accounting Standards Board (“IASB”). All monetary amounts included in this MD&A are expressed in thousands of Canadian dollars (“CAD”), the Company’s reporting and functional currency, unless otherwise noted.
PERIOD COVERED
This MD&A report is for the three-month period ended March 31, 2024, with additional information up to May 14, 2024.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This MD&A contains “forward-looking information” and “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable securities legislation (collectively, “forward-looking statements”), which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management’s expectations and assumptions regarding the Company’s growth, results, performance and business prospects and opportunities. Such forward-looking statements reflect management’s current beliefs and are based on information currently available to it. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as “may”, “would”, “could”, “will”, “should”, “expect”, “intend”, “aim”, “attempt”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “study”, “target”, “estimate”, “forecast”, “predict”, “outlook”, “mission”, “aspire”, “plan”, “schedule”, “potential”, “progress” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. In particular, statements regarding the Company’s future results, the intended construction and commissioning timeline of the Matawinie Mine Project (as defined herein), and the Bécancour Battery Material Plant Project (as defined herein), the intended operation and performance of the purification demonstration plant, shaping demonstration plant, coating demonstration plant and the concentrator demonstration plant, the intended development of the Matawinie Mine property, the intended development of the Uatnan Mining Project (as defined herein), the economic performance and product development efforts, as well as the Company’s expected achievement of milestones, including the ability to obtain sufficient financing for the development of the Matawinie Mine Project and the Bécancour Battery Material Plant Project, including the completion of the FID (as defined herein), the ability to achieve the Company’s environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) initiatives, the closing of the transactions with Pallinghurst and Mitsui, the Company’s electrification strategy and its intended results, market trends, the Company’s competitive advantages, macroeconomic conditions, the impact of various laws and regulations, the results of the integrated feasibility study, preliminary economic assessment for the Uatnan Mining Project and any other feasibility study and preliminary economic assessments and any information as to future plans and outlook for the Company are or involve forward looking-statements.
Forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions that have been made by the Company as at the date of such statements and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, the actual results of current development, engineering and planning activities, access to capital and future prices of graphite, new mining operation inherent risks, mineral exploration and development activities inherent risks, the uncertainty of processing the Company’s technology on a commercial basis and those factors discussed in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in Company’s most recent annual information form. Forward-looking statements in this MD&A contain, among other things, disclosure