Hydro-Québec has finally received the green light to build part of the high-voltage line in an agricultural zone that will power the Nouveau Monde Graphite mine, which still hopes to become the first 100% electric open-pit mine in the world.
After refusing to allow the high voltage line to cross an agricultural area located in Saint-Zénon, the Commission for the Protection of the Agricultural Territory of Quebec (CPTAQ) reverses its decision and cuts the pear in two.
In a decision rendered Monday, the CPTAQ allows the 120 kilovolt line – which is to supply the Nouveau Monde Graphite mine in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, in Lanaudière – to cross arable land, even if the route “does not seem be the one with the least impact on agriculture.
In return, the state company will have to compensate for the territorial losses. She will have to clear and sow a meadow of equivalent area on the land in question, we read in the final decision.
Last year, the Commission presented this area as “unique and fragile due to its location in the middle of an ocean of non-agricultural territory”. Hydro-Québec, for its part, argued that it had to pass through an agricultural environment to avoid crossing a “large wetland, a watercourse and a flood plain” or be forced to move the line “higher in the mountains and, thus, the landscape would be further affected,” we can read in the CPTAQ documents.
The Union of Agricultural Producers would have preferred that the line pass outside of arable land. “For us, and until proven otherwise, Hydro-Québec has not demonstrated that it was absolutely impossible to erect the entire line outside the agricultural zone,” writes the Lanaudière division of union in a notice sent to the CPTAQ.
For its part, Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG) welcomes this decision. “For our part, it remains on schedule for the connection [de la mine en 2026]. So this is very good news,” says Julie Paquet, vice-president of Communications at NMG.
As a whole, the NMG project has two components. In addition to the graphite mine, a plant to transform the ore into anode material for electric vehicles is planned in Bécancour.
“We are waiting to attach the financing of the factory to Bécancour by financing both at once before embarking on the construction at full speed” of the installations necessary for the operations of the mine, she indicates, explaining by elsewhere that the preliminary deforestation and the access road were done in Saint-Michel-des-Saints.
Although financing for the project – estimated at $1.5 billion – has not yet been completed, major investments were announced last winter. In February, General Motors and Panasonic confirmed investments in NMG and committed to purchasing part of the production. The two companies together own 22.22% of the company.
Asked about the claim to become the first 100% electric mine in the world, Mme Paquet is optimistic: “Yes, we still think we can be. »