Year-to-date gain: 112.5 percent; current share price: C$0.085

Green Battery Minerals operates multiple exploration projects in Quebec, but its flagship asset is its Berkwood graphite deposit.

Working with UK-based Graphene Star, which produces high-quality graphene products, Green Battery Minerals has successfully created sample lithium-ion cell batteries with graphene anodes made with graphene produced from graphite extracted at Berkwood.

“The results from making these first test batteries confirm that Green Battery’s graphite has good conductivity and the potential to work in the next generation of (lithium-ion batteries),” the company stated in January. “Having received these good test results warrants more testing and refining the purification process to bring this battery technology to a commercial scale.”

In the same release, Green Battery Minerals announced a memorandum of understanding that could see it earn a 19 percent stake in Graphene Star. The news coincided with the company's highest 2023 share price on January 20 at C$0.10.

Year-to-date gain: 83.33 percent; current share price: C$0.26

Mason Graphite is focused on the development of value-added products for green technologies. The company has a joint venture (JV) agreement with Nouveau Monde Graphite (TSXV:NOU) on the Uatnan mining project, which covers the Lac Guéret graphite deposit in Quebec. Mason Graphite is also the largest shareholder of Black Swan Graphene (TSXV:SWAN,OTCQB:BSWGF).

In early January, the JV partners released the highlights of a preliminary economic assessment for the Uatnan mining project, including an after-tax IRR of 25.9 percent and a NPV of C$2.173 million at an 8 percent discount rate based on current pricing projections for flake concentrate. Mason Graphite’s share price hit a high of C$0.42 on January 19.

Year-to-date gain: 184.73 percent; current share price: C$1.69

Graphite One is focused on becoming a US producer of high-grade coated spherical graphite primarily for the lithium-ion EV battery market. The company plans to develop its Graphite Creek deposit, located in Alaska, into a vertically integrated operation, and it completed a prefeasability study (PFS) for the property in October 2022. According to the company, the US Geological Survey has designated Graphite Creek as the largest and highest-grade graphite resource in the US.

Early in 2023, Graphite One announced that Sandia National Laboratories would apply its award-winning green extraction process to isolate and extract non-graphite critical minerals from Graphite Creek feedstock. Soon after, the company confirmed drill results identifying that significant graphite grades continue 4 kilometers from the PFS pit boundary. The results will be used to update the resource estimate in the PFS. Graphite One's highest share price so far in 2023 came on February 23 at C$1.80.

Year-to-date gain: 42.36 percent; current share price: C$7.22

Nouveau Monde Graphite is developing a vertically integrated natural graphite business producing battery anode material for clean technologies. The company’s Phase 2 Matawinie mine project and Bécancour battery material plant are located in Quebec.

Nouveau Monde Graphite’s share price hit a high of C$7.72 on February 8. In addition to the positive announcement concerning its JV project with Mason Graphite noted above, the company also said it will receive up to C$3.6 million in grants from the Quebec government to advance its portfolio of graphite-based technologies.