The JVCo will be majority owned by Obeikan, with Northern holding 49% and Obeikan holding 51% of the JV. This provides balanced governance while leveraging Obeikan’s local presence and access to regional industrial platforms and financing.

Al Obeikan Group for Investment Company is a family-run business, founded in 1982 by the Obeikan family with headquarters in Riyadh. Obeikan has a strong foothold in manufacturing, packaging, education, and health care. In addition to being the leading provider of fully integrated packaging solutions in the region, Obeikan has a growing focus on digital transformation, providing proven models that help manufacturers and enterprises achieve operational excellence with productivity-enhancing applications, and performance improvement end-to-end solutions.

This project establishes one of the first large-scale, fully integrated, non-Chinese battery anode material supply chains. It combines upstream graphite supply from Northern’s Okanjande mine in Namibia with downstream processing in Saudi Arabia, creating a secure, traceable and geopolitically resilient source of anode material for global battery manufacturers.

Obeikan is one of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s most established industrial groups, with deep expertise in advanced manufacturing, project execution, and large-scale industrial development. The partnership brings together Northern’s technical leadership in graphite and anode materials with Obeikan’s regional capabilities, capital strength, and operational track record. Together, the partners are well positioned to deliver a globally competitive BAM facility.

The facility will be located in Yanbu Industrial City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an established industrial hub with deep-water port access, strong logistics, competitive energy and labor costs, and dedicated industrial infrastructure. Yanbu is a strategic location for serving Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia while leveraging the Kingdom’s growing role in energy transition materials.

The initial phase will be designed to produce approximately 25,000 tonnes per year of battery anode material, with the facility engineered for future expansion as demand grows. The project has been structured to support scalable growth over time.

First production is targeted for 2028, subject to financing, permitting, and construction timelines.

The BAM facility will be financed at the joint venture level. Project financing is anticipated to come from Saudi government development finance institutions, international banks and partner contributions. Northern’s capital commitment will be proportional to its ownership interest in the JV.

The total project cost is currently estimated at approximately US$200 million for the initial phase. It is expected that a significant portion will be debt financed with the balance made up through equity contributions by the partners. Northern will provide 49% of the equity and that amount has yet to be determined.

This joint venture is a cornerstone of Northern’s strategy to become a vertically integrated supplier of battery anode materials. It will accelerate the restart and expansion of the Okanjande mine, provides a template forfuture BAM facilities planned in Québec and France, and positions Northern as a long-term partner to global battery and EV manufacturers seeking non-Chinese supply options.

Okanjande will be the primary upstream feedstock source for the JV, with a long-term offtake with the JVCo of up to 50,000 tpy of graphite concentrate. This will be used to produce about 25,000 tpy of BAM. The project will help accelerate the restart and expansion of Okanjande and position it as Northern’s principal growth engine and an anchor of its mine-to-market strategy.

Not at all. These projects will happen in parallel. Lac des Iles represents our cornerstone mine where we are currently pursuing a pit extension to add at least eight more years to the mine life and boost output so that we can continue to serve our loyal industrial customers of more than 30 years.

Saudi Arabia offers a combination of industrial infrastructure, competitive energy and labor costs, strategic logistics, access to long-tenor development financing and a streamlined regulatory process, all of which will lead to a shorter time to market. The Kingdom is actively building an advanced materials and clean-energy supply-chain ecosystem, making Yanbu a strong base for a world-scale BAM hub that complements, rather than replaces, Northern’s projects in Canada and the EU.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia project will act as a template for Northern’s broader BAM strategy. The commercial, technical, and financing model developed in Yanbu is intended to be replicated and adapted for Baie-Comeau, Quebec and in France, where Northern’s EU CRMA Strategic Project will be located.

Yes, the term sheet stipulates that the JVCo will enter into a long-term offtake agreement to buy up to 50,000 tpy graphite concentrate from Okanjande.

Northern is also in advanced discussions with global OEMs and battery manufacturers with respect to BAM offtakes, and further agreements may be announced as they are finalized.

​The JV model is expressly designed to reduce risk, not increase it. By partnering with Obeikan and leveraging government-backed project financing from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Northern gains access to world-scale capacity without fully funding or operating every element of the chain on its own. The Company’s strategy is to scale as a mid-tier integrated producer through partnerships and disciplined capital allocation.

The project directly supports the electrification of transportation and the decarbonization of supply chains by enabling the production of critical battery materials outside of concentrated geographies. It strengthens supply chain resilience while supporting industrial development in both the Middle East and Africa.

As Canada’s largest two-way merchandise trading partner in the Middle East and North Africa region, Saudi Arabia plays a vital role in advancing Canadian commercial interests abroad. The joint venture between Northern and Obeikan comes just months after Canada and Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding to deepen cooperation in priority sectors, including critical minerals and clean technologies. It also reflects the growing alignment between Canada’s critical minerals strategy and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 agenda of bringing together capital, infrastructure, and industrial capability to support the global energy transition while reducing reliance on single-source supply chains.

The integrated mine-to-Battery Anode Material production chain, from Okanjande to Yanbu creates a pathway for graphite anode material that is independent of China. This directly supports OEM and government objectives in North America, Europe, and allied markets to diversify supply chains and enhance energy-security resilience.

While detailed cost curves will be finalized in the Final Feasibility Study (FFS), the combination of competitive energy and labor costs, integrated logistics, development financing, and process efficiencies is expected to position the project as globally competitive, while also offering the added value of secure, traceable, non-Chinese supply.