Good morning, everyone. My name is Marc Jasmin, and I am Director of Investor Relations of Nouveau Monde Graphite. I'm pleased to welcome you today to the call highlighting the signature by Nouveau Monde Graphite of two distinct long-term offtake agreements: one with General Motors and another with Panasonic Energy, both aiming for the supply of carbon-neutral active anode material that will be produced from our integrated facilities located in Quebec, Canada. These binding offtakes, which will cover a significant portion of our anticipated production, come along with an immediate total investment of $50 million and a cumulative total intention to invest at FID an additional $275 million. These investments are also complemented by an immediate investment from co-investors for a total of $37.5 million, which will be used to repurchase outstanding convertible debentures. Joining me today to discuss these announcements, but also for those new to the Nouveau Monde Graphite story, is Mr. Eric Desaulniers, Founder, President, and CEO of Nouveau Monde Graphite, Mr. Charles-Olivier Tarte, Chief Financial Officer, Patrice Boulanger, Vice President, Sales, Marketing, and Business Development, and Julie Paquet, Vice President, Communications and ESG, whom some of you may have recognized as our moderator today. In the context of these significant milestones and looking ahead at this final investment decision and future milestones, I now wish reminding you that during the call we will, amongst others, discuss our business outlook and make forward-looking statements. Any such forward-looking statements are pursuant to and within the meaning of the Safe Harbor provisions of applicable securities laws in Canada and the United States of America. Accordingly, the statements made today are based on current expectations of management regarding future events and operating performance. There are no guarantees of any future performance or results. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those statements. These risks and uncertainties are discussed and outlined in our continuous disclosure documents, filed in compliance with applicable securities laws, and it is the responsibility of each and every investor to be aware of them and to consider them in any investment decision. Before I turn the call to Eric, take note that although we will be taking questions from the public, priority will be given to sell-side analysts. Also, as a reminder to all, make sure that you use the Q&A function for any questions that you may have. It is only once the sell-side analyst questions are answered that we will accept those of the others. For media inquiries, we would invite you to contact Julie Paquet, VP ESG and Communications, after the call. Finally, despite that this call will mostly cover the offtake and financing announcements, note that we will accept questions on Nouveau Monde Graphite as a whole. [Foreign language] À tous nos autres staffs francophones, merci de votre présence. Un petit mot pour vous rappeler que, bien que la présentation d'aujourd'hui sera en anglais, nous prendrons les questions tant en français qu'en anglais. La priorité sera toutefois accordée aux analystes financiers, et ce n'est qu'après que leurs questions que nous répondrons à celles du grand public. Finalement, en plus des questions sur les ententes à long terme et le financement associé, il nous fera plaisir de répondre à toute question portant spécifiquement sur Nouveau Monde Graphite dans son ensemble. Eric? Merci, Marc. Thank you, everyone, to join us today for this quick briefing that we'll do with these huge milestones that we finally announced today. A lot of work around that, so I have a few thank-yous very much to say to specific people. So first of all, all NMG employees for all the great work made to do this milestone today. There was a lot of days and weeks of discussion with those different parties, and I know the amount of work involved. A special thanks to our CFO, Charles-Olivier Tarte. I think work night and day, including the last night, finalizing the agreements. Same with our VP Legal, Josée Gagnon, with her team. Great amount of work. Patrice, on the call here too, worked on the technical aspect, on the qualification of the product, and all the discussion with those customers. So thank you very much. For sure, all the operation team and the plants that are doing a lot of discussion with different customers, so thank you all. And also to our external consultant, Norton Rose Fulbright. So great work, the Ottawa office with Geoffrey, Bridget, Allison, and all the team that they have. They worked a lot on this deal. BMO Capital Markets for being our advisors. Marc and Pascal, thank you very much. And also our shareholders, first of all, Pallinghurst, who are always very thorough, very involved in the projects since 2019. They believe in the vision that we are establishing. Thank you, Pallinghurst, to be there since a long time and be there again this time. With Mitsui, Mitsui that we are collaborating with since 2018, first meeting in Tokyo. And today, renewing their interest in our company, making a huge commitment. All the discussion, all the weeks of collaboration are paying off. Thank you very much, all the team at Mitsui. Also, Panasonic Energy, obviously, NMG, both customers. I know it's a lot of work, both teams within those organizations that work with NMG, and all the collaboration is going fantastic. It's a lot of days that we and a lot of weeks we did in the last few months and years, and we're looking forward to becoming your best supplier in the future. Obviously, all shareholders on the line who are patient since many years, believing in this story and the vision, thank you very much. What we'll do today, I'll start with the business strategy and the market perspective, where this agreement fits in the big scheme of things at NMG. We'll go into more specifics of the agreements with Patrice. And then Charles-Olivier will talk about the path to FID, the use of proceeds, and our shareholding. And then we'll complete with a Q&A period at the end. And as Marc said, we'll take some questions in French for the French-speaking people on the line. For NMG, what we're doing, so what we're working hard since a long time, it's the two projects, Matawinie Mine, where we're planning to produce 103,000 tons per annum, two hours north of Montreal. So that's one of our main assets that we started construction and pending completion of project financing. We'll resume construction of the site. And then most of the production of the Matawinie Mine will be shipped to Bécancour Industrial Park, where we're developing a battery material plant for producing about 43,000 tons of active anode material. We've produced a feasibility study in mid-2022 on those two projects. Also recently, we acquired a third asset, considering now that we are announcing that our Phase II is mostly sold out, so we need to start working on expansion. That's what the Uatnan project is. We acquired the asset from Mason Graphite to develop it into something that will be five times the size, potentially, of the Matawinie Mine for the future growth in the market. That asset is further northeast in Quebec, where projects need to be big because it's a lot of work to develop those projects. What we're building at NMG, this is quite important. It's the vision that since a long time, we believe that building a large supplier of anode material that develops in a sustainable manner, in a green way, here with security of supply, controlling the full vertical here in Canada, in Quebec, is very important for the North American market. This is what is needed for a very important material in the battery, the active material. So this is what we're building since many years, and we're quite fortunate today that we can have agreements with large corporations like GM and Panasonic, who kind of testified that this is what is needed to establish the long-term vision of decarbonizing our economy. So this is a key validation of the business model that we're working on since a long time. Something important for NMG as well is the phase approach. The Phase I is quite important. This is a lot of work in our plants today to qualify our product. It's like our business card to be able to send samples of high-quality materials, de-risking our processes, and making sure that we develop all the different steps to be a trusted supplier. And now what we are announcing today is about 85% of our future production of the battery material plants in Bécancour is secured with 18,000 tons going to Panasonic Energy for seven years post-construction and for 18,000 tons for six years post-construction for GM. So if you do the math, it's about 85% of our future production of the Phase II is currently offtake with those two parties. So that's why now we will slowly put some resources internally to start working on the growth phase of our business, which is the Phase III. So having that in mind, this is the business plan we had in mind. What we were looking for, where those agreements are coming from, it's been about a year of work intensively going all around the different tier one customers in the market to explain what we need to exist as a company to finance our project. We needed tier one customers that have clarity on the required specification, and not only for a few years, like we're talking about 10 years if you consider the three years construction plus seven years of supply agreements. So we needed customers who have faith in their vision and who have faith in the long-term needs of what is needed to establish this supply chain in North America. We were looking for, obviously, customers who share our vision in terms of ESG and really appreciate the way we're developing the project, that we really believe it's the only way in the future to decarbonize successfully our economy and to make a sustainable transition to EV. So we have now found those customers, and we wanted to focus first on North America. We believe North America needs a lot of suppliers. So this is why now the agreements that we're working on are really supportive of that capital structure that we need to build to finance the project. So we needed equity commitment. We needed partners in the long run and high quality, obviously, tier one credit profile for making it a success. So it's obvious in the future, in our view, that the customer that has a fully integrated vision on how to establish this supply chain will be the most successful in a context where, in the next few years, there will be an obvious deficit of graphite. So now what we're talking, the Phase II, is very timely in the market for the 1st phase of EV that will be developed in North America. And that's why we acquired the Phase III as well, because we need to start accelerating the development of the Phase III to make sure that we bridge some of the gap that we will have on graphite in the future. If you look toward 2030 and further, we need large projects like the Uatnan Mine project we're developing as well in Phase III. So this is the kind of vision we wanted to make sure we share with our customers and now that they believe we are that solution for the long-term growth of their own business model. It's even more true recently, since December 1st. December 1st was an important date where China made a statement to the world that exporting graphite out of China will be more and more difficult for the rest of the world. And at the same time, in America, in the U.S., there was a clear definition from the U.S. government about Foreign Entity of Concern, basically telling the different players in North America that they need to onshore the supply chain and focus on investing in having alternatives to Foreign Entity of Concern, including China. So since December 1st, Patrice can testify, there's a lot of discussion around graphite, and this is quite important, and that will play a significant role in the future where we anticipate a pricing disconnect between what is happening in China, where currently 100% of the graphite comes from going in battery, especially the natural graphite, where there is temporarily an oversupply of graphite in China. However, outside China, there's a clear deficit coming up, and there's a growing demand, and there's no significant supply currently. So we need solutions. And we really believe that we need to have alternatives to what's happening in China. The future of pricing for us, we needed to negotiate in our agreements a way to capture future market upside and a way to make sure we differentiate ourselves from the Chinese situation, and also that we protect the different ratio we need to have in our financing. So we're super fortunate to have found in our customer people who understand how to finance that kind of large project to make sure that we have the pricing mechanism in place where market prevails, but also where we need to have enough return in the future for financing the project today in that context. So on that, maybe, Patrice, you can continue on maybe explaining a bit more what we did as an agreement today. Thank you, Eric. We're absolutely pleased today to announce that we were able to ratify two major offtakes with flagship organizations in North America, being Panasonic Energy and GM. Clearly, these two partners have seen in Nouveau Monde the potential not only to deliver the product that they request, but also follow them in their growth for the future. These agreements are basically covering 85% of our actual planned capacity for lithium-ion battery products, which leaves a little bit more room for other players to participate in Phase II of Nouveau Monde. As Eric mentioned, we're also envisioning the Phase III, which will come at a later point, where we're going to have a significantly larger amount of flake concentrate to accommodate other offtakers. Currently, GM and Panasonic into this will invest both each $25 million, which will help us to bridge until we get to the final investment decision in which we're going to continue to work on the engineering work and also on product development. In these two agreements, each have committed for an offtake of 18,000 metric tons, so in total, 36. And as mentioned, we're roughly around 43,000 metric tons of announced capacity. Once we reach FID, not only these customers and partners will have interest in our product, but they will also participate in the financing of our product, which is key into the long-term relationship like this. Eric, maybe we can go to the next slide where we're going to go more in-depth with each of the announcements. In regards to Panasonic Energy, we have 18,000 tons of active anode material into the contract. This contract term is now evaluated for seven years, full production. There will be an option at the end, depending on how the market conditions are evolving. From a pricing point of view, we have established a formula-based price, which is looking and tracking indexes and other parameters which will both satisfy the customer and Nouveau Monde, and also ensure that we are always securing the financial ratios throughout this exercise. As mentioned in the Panasonic case, they will invest a $25 million tranche over the next couple of days. Then later on this fall, once we reach FID, there will be an additional up to $150 million investment to really secure their position for the future. For the GM agreement, same amount of material which is at play, so 18,000 metric tons of active anode material at full production. This initial term is six years versus seven years for Panasonic. As well here, we have an option to extend the agreement depending on the market condition. Similarly to Panasonic, with slightly different inputs, we're using a formula-based price, which is tracking market indexes. This is how we ensure that we're going to have a viable project mid- to long-term. From an investment point of view as well, GM will be investing $25 million at Phase I. Then at FID, there will be an additional $125 million to be involved in the construction part. On this, I will let our CFO, Charles-Olivier Tarte, explain more of the final investment decision. Thank you, Patrice. And hi, everyone. Let me open by saying that I'm pleased with the series of transactions we announced this morning. Today, we welcome Panasonic Energy and General Motors as both anchor customers and investors to support the development of our Phase II Matawinie Mine and Bécancour battery material plant. The proceeds of the transaction will be used to optimize the projected Phase II facility to meet customer specification. Upcoming key activities will include engineering update with the establishment of an FID master schedule and controlled budget. Pre-construction activities and preparatory site works alongside some strategic procurement and permitting will be ongoing. As part of the series of transactions, Mitsui and Pallinghurst also announced today an investment in the amount of $37.5 million, which proceeds will be used to redeem the outstanding convertible note. Deleveraging and simplifying our balance sheet. More importantly, as we look towards our final investment decision, our anchor customer has stated their willingness to provide subsequent funding of up to $275 million, subject to customary conditions and maximum ownership threshold. Moving to the next slide. After the completion of the transaction, NMG will have the benefit of strong strategic shareholders such as General Motors, Pallinghurst, Mitsui, Panasonic Energy, Mason Resources, and Investissement Québec. Such cornerstone investors are paramount to bring our project to completion, including the wealth of technical expertise they are providing. Considering the above-mentioned investment and using our latest release interim financial statement dated September 30, 2023, after the closing of this transaction, NMG will have a pro forma cash position of approximately CAD 117 million, which provides the necessary runway to get to FID. A successful FID required the participation of several important stakeholders and the appropriate capital structure at the right cost. With the support of strong bankable offtake agreements, NMG shall be able to enter into a project finance structure currently estimated at 60% of debt. In recent months, alongside the negotiations surrounding these key offtakes, NMG has been working actively with the offtakers, lenders, and government to optimize the target capital structure. As such, Société Générale, our Lead Debt Arranger, has conducted several due diligence workstreams with the aim of providing a senior secured debt facility to NMG. As we're building the supply chain in North America, the participation of the government will also be a key success factor. The recently announced Canadian Investment Tax Credit for Cleantech Manufacturing, which is designed to mimic the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, shall bring important incentives to the overall project finance structure. As such, we evaluate the measure to cover approximately 25% of our current capital cost requirement of our Phase II project, representing an amount of approximately CAD 300 million-CAD 350 million. NMG is also seeking additional government support abroad based on where we will be sourcing our key equipment using export credit agencies' support. Overall, and as a general principle, NMG intends to position itself and benefit from the fact that most Western governments are currently putting in place targeted financial programs to support the localization of critical mineral supplies. In the next few months, those important processes will all be run in parallel. With that, I'll turn it to Eric to conclude today's management presentation. So maybe a recap of what we will do next. As you know, we've worked a lot in the last few years at delivering a construction-ready project. Today, what we're announcing is really the binding offtake that was the next milestone for us to continue the work toward delivering the project. So first of all, those binding offtakes provide very clear volumes and specifications for our project team to update and optimize our project scope, to freeze the project scope, and to deliver also all project documents in advance of making an FID decision and a project financing. So this is a first very important working stream that will occur in the next few months. And then in parallel, we will work with all stakeholders, all financial institutions that are interested, and all governments to participate in our FID to make sure that they understand those binding offtakes, they understand the structure that we put in place so we complete an FID and a launch of construction as soon as possible toward the end of the year would be the best target we can give the market at this point. If we wrap up what it means today, so we just announced fantastic tier one industry players that are at the center of the EV revolution, especially in North America, that are embarking in a long-term relationship with NMG. It's a multi-year offtake agreement that were badly needed to proceed with project financing. It's approximately 85% of Phase II Matawinie Mine, so there's about 15% still available on our project. Then we are demonstrating a strong long-term bankability of our company. We will expand shareholder base with the addition of other major investors. Now we have four tier one investors that are in our share registry. We have the means to get to FID in a timely manner. On that, maybe I welcome Julie Paquet, our VP of Communications and ESG to maybe run the Q&A session. Yes. Thanks, Eric, and the whole team. So I invite participants to use the Q&A function at the bottom of your screen to submit your questions. We'll try to cover all of them with priority given to analysts. [Foreign language] Pour les participants francophones, sentez-vous bien à l'aise de soumettre vos questions en français directement dans le chat. On prendra la peine de répondre dans votre langue de préférence. Puis, s'il y a des éléments de la présentation de ce matin qui vous ont échappés, vous pouvez communiquer avec Marc suite au briefing pour pouvoir compléter le tout. Alors. We'll kick it off, picking up on the FID, kind of where we finish the presentation. Eric, if you can provide people with an expected commencement and finishing date for the Phase II based on now current parameters. Yeah, so maybe I can re-emphasize on the importance of those offtake agreements. It was difficult for our project team and our corporate team as well to finalize discussions toward project financing until we had a clear commitment on volumes and specifications of the product we need to manufacture in the plant. So now that we have kind of a project scope freeze, the idea is to redo an estimate of our project and make sure that we optimize the flow sheet and all the different project criteria to make sure we deliver the needed documentation to the financing stakeholders in the upcoming months. Then we interact with them and we try to build the best possible structure for financing, and we work with different governments to optimize the support coming from them as well. There's a lot of work now that will start thanks to those binding offtake agreements. At this point in time, toward the end of the year, my personal and the team's best estimate for being in a position to be at FID if everything goes well in the upcoming month. All right. In regards to offtake supply agreements, can you provide a bit more visibility on the pricing mechanism, including if there are ceiling and floor prices included in those mechanisms? For sure, the detail of those pricing formulas is very confidential. They are structured slightly differently, but what we can confirm and the guidance we can give to the market is there's an upside for our equity holders. So if the market prevails, the market conditions are very good for graphite and we have kind of a lithium moment, our equity holder will take advantage of that. So there's upside for us. And also, there's the minimum ratios that we need to cover for projects, for lenders, for project financing. And we need to say our financial advisor at Société Générale, we're involved in the negotiation of those offtakes to make sure that they cover the downside protection as well that the lenders need to borrow us the money needed in the project. Without going into details that I cannot go in, those two offtakes bundled together provide the best of upside and the best of downside protection as well. Have customer specs now been finalized? Is that kind of done to complete freezing, as you mentioned? And if not, what do we expect the remaining work to be? How much time and effort needs to be invested in that specification finalization? I would say one of the most important things in those agreements is to make sure we understand precisely the product that we need to produce for those customers based on our experience in our demo plant. So this is achieved with those agreements. So we have clarity on the specification. But as I've mentioned, it's a partnership. So working with those two companies, it will be a partnership for NMG and for them to make sure that if needed in the future, during qualification, during construction, we need to optimize those specifications. In good faith, all parties will make sure that we optimize it. But this is the kind of agreements that we needed with both partnership and equity and clarification of the specification to build a project today, but also staying relevant for, as I've mentioned, 10 years. For sure, we'll need to have flexibility, both parties, to optimize the product in the future. All right. So moving to a similar question in French, and perhaps we can recap after. [Foreign language] Par rapport aux spécifications de produit puis aux échantillons qui ont déjà été envoyés à Panasonic, à GM, aux compagnies, qu'est-ce que vous pouvez donner comme feedback par rapport à la qualité de la production vis-à-vis des exigences, des spécifications des clients? [Foreign language] On peut dire que c'est ce qu'on a mentionné dans, je pense, notre dernière communication trimestrielle où on a mis une photo précise de rouleaux d'électrodes de graphite qui avaient été faits avec notre produit par Panasonic. C'est certain qu'à la base de ces investissements-là, puis à la base de ces commitments à long terme de la part des clients, il y a une validation au niveau des produits qui est faite. Effectivement, nos produits semblent répondre aux critères nécessaires à nos clients pour qu'ils en fassent le commitment aujourd'hui. Jusqu'à maintenant, c'est toutes des bonnes nouvelles. Il reste juste à le faire en plus grosse quantité, puis à tous les jours, puis toujours la bonne qualité. So if I wrap it up and you can complete the answer if I missed something, but the question was in regards to the quality of the samples that have been provided in regard to the specifications of customers through the qualification process thus far, and we've had positive validation through that back-and-forth collaboration with customers, one of the examples being the anode sheets that were featured in our last quarterly update. So Panasonic Energy has now integrated the anode material produced at our Phase I facilities into its prototype lines to test the quality of the material in relation to other components. So moving on, perhaps if you can comment on requirements for a positive FID, is there an IRR threshold, CAPEX level, other parameters that will determine whether it is indeed a positive step and we can move forward towards construction? To me, as Charles-Olivier and his finance and modeling team tells me is good. That's my first personal validation. So maybe, Charles-Olivier, you can confirm how all the work we do internally at modeling all those different stakeholders, important criteria us to get to FID. Yeah, thanks, Eric. So yeah, obviously, a lot of financial criteria needs to be met in order to be at FID. We discussed earlier this morning that meeting minimum financial covenant under our projected senior secured debt is going to be an important step. But obviously, the other step is also having positive equity return for all shareholders in order to be able to be at FID and attract the level of investment we need to attract. And also importantly, we need to offer competitive pricing and competitive product and obviously a great solution or alternative to our customer with regards to their currently Chinese-sourced graphite. So I would say sometimes I like to paint the picture. FID is a place where everyone is a bit unhappy. So debtors need to take a bit of risk. Customer needs to pay a bit more, and then equity holders also need to have the proper equity return. So that's all those that at the end of the day, when all those conditions are met, we will be able to proceed to FID alongside all the key technical deliverables that will be required in order to secure the project finance. Maybe I can complete by saying today's announcement is very important because we have customers committing to offtakes, investing, but also we have financial partners, strategic partners like Mitsui and Pallinghurst who are confirming that they want to support the company and they like what they see. So it's part of the needed situation for FID, is making sure equity holder alongside customers and also obviously government playing an important role in the future to bridge the gap. So I think we have the best structure in place and in hand to proceed in the next few months to a positive FID. Following up on that theme, is an updated feasibility study a requirement to get to a positive FID? For sure, now that we have, as I've mentioned, the right scope of the project will optimize what we've done in the past. Also, the last estimate we've done was mid-2022. So it's obviously a requirement for all stakeholders in the project financing to update such an estimate. So that's something we will do in the upcoming months with the investment that we received today. So that's part of the optimization process and deliverables for FID. We need to make sure that we have the latest and updated and optimized documentation project-wise for being successful. If we are considering FID toward the end of the year, when do we expect to start production and deliveries? Yeah. If we look at the schedule we had in the feasibility study, it was 28 months post-FID that we were able to deliver the project and start commissioning. So we will update that schedule, the master schedule, based on the new reality we have in the market in terms of delay for long lead items and all such things. So part of the FID deliverable is to produce and optimize a master schedule for the project. But if we use 28 months post-FID, if we have an FID toward the end of the year, I'll let you do the math. So it all depends in the work to come how we update this number of 28 months post-FID. The goal is to be toward in the first part of 2027, if everything goes well, to be in full production not full, but in the ramp-up phase of our production. All right. Going back a bit to the basics, FID will cover NMG's Phase II. Can you review what's the projected flow-through of production between Matawinie, Bécancour, battery material customers, and other potential opportunities in the market? Yeah. As you remember, we do have as well an offtake agreement with Traxys on some portion of the flake production covering the traditional markets. So this is something that we're working as well with Traxys, how to make that very interactive with some of the traditional buyers of flake graphite. So considering Traxys plus the two offtakes we announced today, we're in very good shape in terms of volume-wise. So Traxys plus the flake needed for those two offtakes, Matawinie Mine is pretty much sold out. And now we're trying to work on completing the portfolio of product that's going out of Bécancour. So both the 6,000, 6,000, 7,000 ton remaining of anode material, but also what will we do with all the byproducts that are quite valuable out of the production as well. So that's also an opportunity to work with various customers to do a secondary anode material that we're working on as well with a few interested parties. Beyond Panasonic and GM, has there been express interests or discussions with other potential OEMs? Yes, maybe Patrice can comment without giving any names, obviously. Clearly, we've been in discussion with many key OEMs that have operation or plan to have operation in North America because the way the system is structured with the IRA, now they're looking to secure non-Chinese graphite sources. And since graphite is a key component of each lithium-ion battery, clearly, we become one of the key players in the North American market, if not the largest now fully integrated vertically. So a lot of OEMs are seeking geopolitical minimum risk on that end. And having one supplier that has the credibility of providing the right product is definitely a plus for us. So yes, we're entertaining many discussions right now and more and more since we've made the announcement of the Uatnan project because they see now that we have the potential to grow with other customers as well. So this is positioning us uniquely into the market. Yeah. There were references in the presentation and in the announcements in terms of maximum ownership thresholds for customers. Can you explain what those entail and who they apply to, Panasonic, GM, the two of them? Yeah. It's difficult to really plan what will be the share price at FID. We never know. We don't control this variable, I believe. So that's why we need to put those warnings in place. We don't want to have neither the customer nor the company would like to see one of the parties in more than 20%-25% holdings. So that's why this note was there, is to make sure that we respect all intentions of all parties and also the corporation to not create too much of a controlling situation in our shareholding from one or two parties. So that's why we've put this warning there to make sure we, depending on where will be the share price at FID, what will be the final ownership is speculative at this point. So we want it to be clear with that warning. Okay. Zooming in on Matawinie, and we have the question in both French and English, so I'll ask it in both languages, and perhaps you can answer in both languages. Have we secured electric power for the Matawinie mine? What's the update with Hydro-Québec, the state-owned electricity provider for Québec? [Foreign language] En français, est-ce que l'approvisionnement en électricité pour la mine Matawinie a été confirmé, sécurisé? Quelles sont les dernières mises à jour par rapport à la situation avec Hydro-Québec? First of all, we receive our block of electricity for Bécancour, I think 77 MW of power for Bécancour. We do have agreements in place for the Matawinie mine as well for connecting to the grid, and Hydro-Québec is working on that. So it's not on the critical path. There's no risk of not being supplied in electricity. Currently, we're finalizing the path where the hydro line will where the power line exactly will pass. So we have different alternatives, and we have our preference. Hydro-Québec has their preference as well. So we're finalizing the path to finalize where the line itself will pass. But there's no risk at this point in time on the critical it's not on the critical path, and there's no risk of not being supplied in electricity. It's just a matter of exactly how that we're finalizing as we speak with Hydro-Québec. [Foreign language] Peut-être un petit peu de français aussi. [Foreign language] Donc, à l'heure actuelle, l'approvisionnement en électricité, on a des blocs d'énergie qui sont réservés pour les deux sites, donc tant la mine que l'usine de Bécancour. À ce niveau-là, les garanties ont été données par le gouvernement. Et les mandats sont également ouverts avec Hydro-Québec. Donc, pour la mine Matawinie, Hydro-Québec est tenue de nous connecter au réseau. Présentement, ils sont en train d'évaluer les différents scénarios, mais on n'est pas inquiets par rapport au cheminement critique pour l'avancement du projet. Donc, on continue à avancer et à collaborer avec les parties prenantes à ce niveau-là. So going back to perhaps the transaction, can you comment on the impact for dilution of shareholders? [Foreign language] Oui, peut-être Charles t'as les chiffres un peu plus précis ou Marc. Mais effectivement, maybe in English, it's better. Sorry. So maybe Charles and Marc can help on exactly what it represents. Maybe I can put back this slide to help. Yeah. So yeah, as part of this transaction, following the consummation of the transaction, we expect to have 112 million shares outstanding. As part of the and being fully diluted at 166 million, ahead of the transaction, we had 67 million shares outstanding. And on a fully diluted basis, we were at 91 million shares outstanding, fully diluted shares. Maybe I can comment a bit on all those parties. Most of those parties have lockup. All the big group that you see there, part of the transaction, most of them has a lockup period at par with the FID process that we're working on. Yes, obviously, we have a dilution caused by the transaction today, but those corporations are here for the long run. They have a project to build. They need the production. I wouldn't see those blocks being dangerous to be in the market rather soon. It's a long-term investment for all of them. Also now, if you want to buy a share, you're kind of buying a share, and you're in business with I think there's three corporations of more than $40 billion valuation. So now you're in business with very strong partners who believe in the long term of the project and will be there if needed during the construction. So it's the best group of shareholders ever to build such a major project and build such an important company like NMG in the big scheme of things. So I would believe a very solid foundation for moving forward in terms of shareholder base. All right. So while we have Charles, can you provide a bit more details in terms of pricing details for the tranche one investment and the tranche two investment as well? Yeah. So the tranche one investment that we announced this morning has been priced at 4% discount to yesterday's closing. So yesterday, our share price did close at $2.07 or $2.08, depending on which exchange you look at the data, and the transaction was priced at $2. So not as deep discount as we've seen in other offerings. Whereas the tranche two offering, this will be priced in the context of the market at the time of FID. So depending on various scenarios, the share price, we cannot or price cannot be reserved as of today and will be priced at the moment of such transaction. All right. Looking at the funding for construction when we get to FID, what's the CapEx amount that you're looking to secure? Can you perhaps provide a bit more clarity on the 60/40 ratio you discussed? Yeah. Good. Thanks, Julie, for that question. So obviously, the capital cost that we estimate today based on our 2022 feasibility study is $1.4 billion for both the Matawinie mine and the Bécancour battery material plant. I discussed earlier that we expect to receive great incentives from the government with the recently announced ITC, so the investment tax credit. So that's going to be $350 million. And the other important piece that we have been negotiating over the last several months is the senior debt piece, which will represent 60% of that capital cost. So all in all, we will be able to raise the necessary project debt finance in order to meet those ratios. And ultimately, with those in mind, that completes a big portion of the project finance. Can you comment? We have the question both in French and in English on kind of the scale of grants you're expecting from Québec, Canada, and any potential submissions to DOE or other governmental branches in the US. Yeah. Obviously, that's a question, and that's a good question. Obviously, now we've been discussing the ITC because that's a measure that's been announced publicly and that is pending the adoption of the law at the next parliamentary session in Ottawa. This one, we can directly talk to because it's in the public domain. Whereas all the other governmental discussion, unfortunately, needs to be confidential. But as you can see in the market, typically, all those governmental bodies are willing to support the localization of critical mineral supply. And we left no stone unturned as to who can support us to provide the necessary funding and provide more incentives than what's in the public domain today. Absolutely. I would just finish by saying that the new parties investing today are also a lot of interest, helping us achieve the best structure possible in the ongoing discussion we have with all the parties. [Foreign language] Est-ce qu'on veut reprendre en français? Peut-être si je répète la question, on cherchait à savoir l'ordre de grandeur de subventions ou d'appuis gouvernementaux au Québec, au Canada, et même via les programmes américains dans le cadre du financement de projets. [Foreign language] Donc oui. Donc les programmes gouvernementaux, de manière générale, sont très confidentiels, puis on ne peut pas en discuter de manière publique. Ce que j'ai mentionné plus tôt au niveau du crédit d'impôt à l'investissement, ça, c'est une mesure qui a été annoncée dans le dernier budget, puis le texte de loi est présentement disponible. Donc cette mesure-là, qui a pour but d'un peu répliquer au Inflation Reduction Act aux États-Unis, permet de soutenir le projet pour un ordre de grandeur de CAD 300 million-CAD 350 million. Parallèlement à ça, on a aussi des discussions avec plusieurs agences gouvernementales, tant au niveau provincial, fédéral, mais aussi à l'international, pour voir à maximiser, dans le fond, tout le support gouvernemental. Puis nos clients, évidemment, qu'on les implique dans ce processus-là, puis peuvent venir aussi soutenir certains des efforts qu'on a dans ces processus-là. Thank you, and just for everyone in English, what is underappreciated, maybe in this deal, is the support that we'll receive not only in investing and offtake agreement from Panasonic and GM, but it's also the support to optimize our project structure and making sure that we work together to minimize the costs and the delays and optimize the, I would say, governmental support. So we have partners now that have a vested interest in helping us achieve the best in terms of cost for the project. Are there any restrictions or exclusivity clauses associated with the financing partners related to today's announcement and future funding? For sure, there are investor rights agreements that are very standard for investment of that nature. So as long as they keep a certain level of ownership, they will have rights in terms of preemptive and others. But nothing that is extraordinary. I would say it's standard practice for investors of that magnitude, I would say. All right. Going to market dynamics, we've recently seen the deal between Novonix and Tesla for a supply agreement. Can you comment on kind of Nouveau Monde's position into the EV battery marketplace and the synthetic versus natural graphite demand? Yeah, the constant question. So yes, for sure, you need still synthetic graphite. You need natural graphite. So the announcement today demonstrates the needs of natural graphite. Depending on the chemistry, on the cell format, and a lot of different things, the recipe is different from customer to customer. So the thing we can say for sure today is Panasonic and GM will need natural graphite. And we can say as well that they will need some synthetic graphite. And we're happy for Chris and his team at Novonix, a great team there, and they work very hard as well for delivering a quality product. And we're looking forward to see them being successful as well. So you need both products in the market. It's just your job to understand what each of the customers wants and where you fit in there. That's what we did in the last few years, selecting those customers. In regards to kind of the China versus North America markets, can you comment on expected pricing in North America for anode material? Maybe Pat will complement me after. As I've mentioned during the presentation, there's a clear disconnect of what is happening in China, where 100% of the natural graphite anode material comes from today. Now we need a lot in North America, so we need to build a supply chain. It's a clear deficit in North America, and maybe there's an oversupply in China. So there's a disconnect between the two. That's what we were really focused on in our agreements, is to making sure we have we're developing a pricing mechanism and a situation where that will fully represent what will happen in North America in the future in terms of market. Yeah, so that's what I believe one of the great achievements of our agreements is to make sure we don't tie up too much what's happening in China, where it's a totally different situation out there compared here. Yeah. All right. Can you provide a sense of scale in terms of the annual volume of production you'll be supporting for GM and Panasonic in regards to an average-sized EV battery? How much are we contributing to the electrification? The 36,000-ton total is roughly, I would say, 500,000 EV per year in North America we cover. Maybe, Charles, you can talk quickly what is the value of the product we'll sell for the 36,000 tons per year, if you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good. So yeah, the value of that, obviously, from a cost standpoint and looking at feasibility study and assuming their price at $8,000 per ton, the amount of revenue we expect to generate from that is slightly more than $300 million under both offtake using those assumptions. So obviously, we've discussed the volume, but also from a sales standpoint, the offtake agreement covers largely the sales that we were contemplating under our previous feasibility study. So that's also a key piece around having the right bankability criteria for lenders. I would say part of the work we'll do, there's a lot of engineering, but also we'll work with expert firms like Benchmark Minerals that we like to use, but also others that are developing expertise around forecasting what should be the value of those indexes in the future. So in the future, once we'll optimize our studies, we will also include a pricing that will be based on the offtakes we just announced. So that's also something when you do a feasibility study, it's always difficult to put the right revenue line. So now we have more clarity exactly what will be the impact using those forecasts of our future profitability. So that's something also that we'll optimize in our forecast of the future revenue. All right. Question from an analyst here. Can you provide a bit of details in terms of the bidding process with the financing partners? What was the dynamic? Who approached whom? A negotiation process along the way? Yeah. Yeah. So we decided to work with Bank of Montreal on that process. So we gave a mandate to BMO on specifically optimizing the equity portion coming from strategic customers. So we did a teaser process in the last, I would say, last year that we've worked with them. So we went everywhere talking with all the different major customers to explain exactly what we need to finance our project. And the outcome of that process, we see it today. So I mean, every large organization, every customer, they do have a different strategy, and they are at a different level in their execution of their strategy. So we're fortunate to work with GM and Panasonic that, to us, seems to be the leading parties in North America anyway to be involved all the way to the mines to make it happen. For sure, we like the vision of our customers that are very similar to ours in the long-term development of the supply chain. Yeah. A question we are getting in both French and English. Do we consider acquiring other graphite assets in Québec to support our growth? [Foreign language] So est-ce que Nouveau Monde considère acquérir d'autres propriétés comme on l'a fait avec le projet Uatnan pour soutenir la croissance? [Foreign language] Pour nous, en français, peut-être, pour nous, on a fait un travail quand même considérable à s'assurer qu'on comprenait les différents assets au Québec avant de faire notre choix sur le Lac Guéret. Donc, quand on a décidé de faire la transaction du Lac Guéret, c'est parce que c'est le projet qui est le plus avancé et qui a reçu le plus de travaux dans le passé. Fait que pour nous, c'était le choix logique pour développer le projet rapidement. Si un jour, il y a un projet qui se développe, qui a autant d'investissements, puis qui a autant d'intérêt, ce n'est pas exclu qu'on prenne une décision dans ce sens-là. Mais pour l'instant, je pense qu'on a les bras très pleins avec le projet Uatnan. Mais il y a beaucoup d'autres projets intéressants qu'on surveille le développement en tout temps. C'est in English? You're good in English, Julie. You can go. Yeah. I was managing the questions that were coming in. So I'll let you repeat yourself. Okay. No problem. So we're always looking at assets how they are getting developed. And the Uatnan mining asset, it's to our knowledge, the second most advanced after Matawinie. And there was a lot of very good quality work made in the past by the Mason Graphite. So we are looking at other assets as well and monitoring their development. And if one day one of the assets becomes clearly a very interesting near-term development asset, it's not excluded that we may take a decision to do something else. However, we have a handful with developing the Uatnan asset as for now, but we're always keeping eyes open. All right. Moving to Matawinie, perhaps, as we wrap things up, there's a question related to First Nations. So if there is an IBA, an impact benefit agreement in place for the Matawinie project? Yeah, that's a very important point. So we are always interacting with the First Nation of Manawan on the Matawinie mine. So for us, the relationship is very important. And we are every month trying to be a better partner and understanding what is the need of the Manawan community and how we can optimize the benefit for them. And we are always discussing to come up with the best agreement possible. But we don't see it like it's a deal, it's done, and it's over. It's more like a long-term relationship where we'll need to always evolve in bringing them as partners in our project along the way. So it's great. We're fully permitted on the mine. So construction started, and we're trying to optimize how we can involve them as much as possible in training opportunities and employment opportunities and contract. Even if we don't have the final IBA fully signed, we're acting as is, and we're developing everything we can to be a good partner. Wonderful. Final question. We're still on Matawinie mine. We'll ask it in French, but we can summarize in English after. [Foreign language] Est-ce que Nouveau Monde a des ententes en vue d'acquérir des équipements électriques lourds pour la mine Matawinie? Avec quel fournisseur est-ce qu'on travaille? [Foreign language] Oui, on travaille avec Caterpillar. Caterpillar, il y a un programme de développement d'une flotte toute électrique pour Nouveau Monde. On est, à notre connaissance, le premier projet 100% intégré où non seulement c'est les équipements, mais c'est aussi les stations de recharge, puis aussi la solution d'affaires qui nous permet d'aller optimiser notre structure de capital, puis d'avoir une solution qui est bonne à long terme pour la mine électrique. Fait que c'est avec Caterpillar qu'on travaille. I'm sure Charles can repeat in English. Was Charles paying attention? I can. Yeah. No, we're good, Julie. Go ahead. No, no, no. You're good. So yeah. So thanks. So obviously, we are working with Caterpillar with regards to providing zero-emission vehicle at the Matawinie mine. So we have that ongoing partnership that dates from a few years back. And we have great collaboration with the Caterpillar team there so that we will be able to phase out of a diesel fleet within the next first year of operation. And that will be a great benefit to all stakeholders in order to provide carbon-neutral anode material to our customers. Thank you. So we've tried to cover all key questions and topics. If you do have follow-up questions, feel free to reach out to Marc, who can provide more details on any of those remaining questions. We will be uploading the webcast to our YouTube channel within the next 24 hours if you missed some portion of it. So feel free to go back and look at it. [Foreign language] À tous nos actionnaires, merci d'avoir été présents ce matin. S'il y a certaines questions auxquelles on n'a pas eu le temps de répondre ou vous cherchez à avoir un peu plus de précisions, je vous invite à communiquer avec Marc dans le courant de la journée ou dans les prochains jours, puis on pourra faire un retour là-dessus. Puis s'il y a des questions de journalistes, sentez-vous bien à l'aise de communiquer avec moi. Members from the media can contact me directly if you need to have further details or want to request an interview. I don't know, Eric, if you want to have the final word. Yeah, maybe final word. Thank you very much for your patience again. We're looking forward to updating you along the way going to FID. It will be a very exciting journey, and it's just starting to build what we believe will be the largest natural graphite vertically integrated operations in North America. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.