Mr. Eric Desaulniers reports

NMG AND TRAXYS FINALIZE OFFTAKE AND MARKETING AGREEMENT FOR NATURAL FLAKE GRAPHITE FOR REFRACTORY MARKETS IN NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE

Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. and Traxys North America LLC, an international metals and minerals trading house, have updated and strengthened their existing relationship by finalizing a binding amended and restated joint marketing and offtake agreement for 20,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of graphite concentrate from the company's phase 2 Matawinie mine, the execution of which is subject only to the approval of the Traxys board. The collaboration targets the refractory market, a $45-billion (U.S.) global market with a projected compound annual growth rate of 9.1 per cent to 2033 (Grand View Research, 2025), to serve steelmaking industries with refractory applications such as bricks, electric arc furnaces, crucibles and carbon raisers.

Dennis Gates, Traxys's head of industrial metals, announced: "Traxys has supported NMG's vision for many years. We are excited to see the positive results of the team's long-term vision and look forward to working with NMG for many years in the future."

Eric Desaulniers, founder, president and chief executive officer of NMG, stated: "Across the Western world, the transformation of the steel and manufacturing sectors is creating strong, sustained demand for high-performance refractory materials -- and graphite sits at the heart of it. Industries are seeking reliable, high-purity and responsibly produced graphite to ensure supply security and continued growth. With North American and European economies reshoring critical mineral value chains and manufacturing capacities, we see compelling opportunities to partner with Traxys to serve steelmakers and refractory producers. Traxys's global presence and insight help us accelerate market access, optimize our sales strategy and deliver long-term value to our customers and shareholders."

Offtake and marketing agreement

The 2025 Traxys binding offtake and marketing agreement is intended to cover the purchase and commercialization of 20,000 tpa of graphite concentrate to be sourced from NMG's phase 2 Matawinie mine. With an initial seven-year term following the start of full-scale production, the agreement is expected to include sales pricing based on market indices with respect to the 10,000 tpa firm take-or-pay volume.

Traxys's established relationships with hundreds of industrial customers enables NMG to tap into a stable, growing industry for refractory products in North America and Europe.

Complementary information

With potentially close to 100 per cent of the future phase 2 Matawinie mine graphite concentrate production now allocated between multiple customers across diversified applications and the project appreciably derisked through years of development, the company is working toward advancing the financing process under way to reach FID.

Information on NMG's execution strategy to launch its phase 2 commercial production along with details of parallel commercial agreements with the government of Canada; Panasonic Energy Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Panasonic Holdings Corporation (TYO: 6752); and an established anode manufacturer can be accessed on-line.

About Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc.

Nouveau Monde Graphite is an integrated company developing responsible mining and advanced processing operations to supply the global economy with carbon-neutral advanced graphite materials. The company is developing in Quebec, a fully integrated ore-to-processed-graphite value chain to serve tomorrow's industries in energy, defence, technology and manufacturing.

About Traxys Group

Traxys is a physical commodity trader and merchant in the metals and natural resources sectors.

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