NanoXplore’s new graphene production facility (located at 4500 Thimens Blvd, Montreal (Ville St-Laurent), Province of Quebec) is currently housed within an existing 70,000 square foot building. All major equipment has been delivered and secured in their physical location within the facility. Mechanical and electrical connections of the equipment are ongoing and are expected to be completed by early February. Hydro-Québec has provided all power requirements for the commercial production of our 4,000 metric tons/year capability graphene production facility. The new graphene facility will be a fully automated production plant that will enable a connected and flexible manufacturing system.
The facility will also become NanoXplore’s new Corporate Headquarters on January 20
th, 2020. Extensive renovations have been made to house all existing and future Corporate and Carbon Technology employees. In parallel with additions to our Production team, key Corporate positions have also been filled to help facilitate growth, including but not limited to the placement of a Global IT Director and a Global HR Director.
Mr. Rocco Marinaccio, COO of NanoXplore, commented:
“
It has been an extremely busy six-month period for the Operations team, but I’m delighted to report that all major equipment for our 4,000 metric tons/year commercial graphene initiative has been delivered and we remain on-time and below budget for the project. Focus will now shift to the integration of the equipment with scheduled commissioning to start during February of this year. This is a significant milestone for the Corporation, and I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank all of our employees for their hard-work and commitment and to our contractual partners for their dedicated assistance.”
CapEx Update
The Corporation previously announced that the new graphene facility layout has been fully optimized. This optimization will allow NanoXplore to build its 4,000 metric tons/year of graphene production line in a much smaller footprint than originally designed. This will enable the Corporation to use the remaining space for other purposes, such as warehousing, compounding and mixing, and the addition of another graphene production line. In conjunction with the installation of the equipment, we expect to receive our first delivery of small-mesh natural flake graphite at the end of January 2020 for the commissioning of the plant.
The Corporation has also been successful in solidifying the technical design of its 4,000 metric tons/year proprietary graphene batch-production process. This production module can now be easily replicated for any future expansion project. These decisions were taken in order to minimize the cost involved in the engineering of any future production lines and to avoid any potential risk from further scale-up activities. This standardization of the production line will result in a quicker turn-around in future graphene line additions and will enable NanoXplore to address market demands quickly.
Graphene Commercial Update
NanoXplore’s Sales team continues to make significant strides as graphene becomes a viable solution for high-volume commercial applications. The Corporation’s focus is to replace current carbon-based additives within the thermoset and thermoplastic market by offering standardized products and solutions in powder and masterbatch formats. Focus of the Corporation’s efforts will now shift to obtaining purchase orders for our graphene products within the next six months. NanoXplore continues to engage with large original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and potential partners within various industries, such as industrial products, automotive, wires and cables, pipe, packaging, and sporting goods, to provide a more-enhanced solution to that of traditional additives.
NanoXplore’s ability to provide industrial volume of graphene at an affordable cost is the key that unlocks the development of the graphene market, resulting in a market shift from a technology-push to a market-pull. This shift is already underway and will help the successful commercialization efforts done by the Corporation.
About NanoXplore Inc.
NanoXplore is a graphene company, a manufacturer and supplier of high-volume graphene powder for use in industrial markets. The company provides standard and custom graphene-enhanced plastic and composite products to various customers in transportation, packaging, electronics, and other industrial sectors. NanoXplore is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec with manufacturing facilities across North America and Europe.
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Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains express or implied forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws (“forward-looking statement”), which are based on current expectations of management. These forward-looking statements relate to, among other things, our expectations regarding management’s plans, objectives, and strategies. All forward-looking statements other than statements of historical fact could be deemed forward-looking, including, but not limited to, any projections of financial information, any statements about historical results that may suggest trends for our business and results of operations, any statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations, including the timing, funding and construction of planned manufacturing facilities and sales offices, any statements of expectation or belief regarding future events, potential markets or applications, the sizes of addressable markets, expected technology developments, strategic partnerships and collaborations, or enforceability of our intellectual property rights, any statements about the projected or expected economic or other benefits of our products compared to equivalents, future sales and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. The words “continue”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “may”, “will”, “intend”, “believe”, “plan” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward‐looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, assumptions and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond our control. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur and the timing of events and circumstances and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All such statements speak only as of the date made, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by applicable securities laws.
For more information, please contact:
NanoXplore Inc.
Liam Farrell
Chief Commercial Officer
Liam.Farrell@nanoXplore.ca 