{"id":719,"date":"2025-09-06T15:39:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T15:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/06\/quebec-communities-vote-no-to-la-loutre-graphite-mine\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T15:39:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T15:39:16","slug":"quebec-communities-vote-no-to-la-loutre-graphite-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/06\/quebec-communities-vote-no-to-la-loutre-graphite-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"Qu\u00e9bec Communities Vote \u201cNo\u201d to La Loutre Graphite Mine"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Residents in five Western Qu\u00e9bec<\/strong> municipalities of have overwhelmingly rejected a proposed open-pit graphite mine, with 95 percent voting against the La Loutre project in a referendum.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nearly 3,000 ballots were cast on Sunday (August 31) across Duhamel, Lac-des-Plages, Lac-Simon, Ch\u00e9n\u00e9ville and Saint-\u00c9mile-de-Suffolk. Of those, 2,754 citizens voted against the asset, while only 115 were in favor.<\/p>\n

The organizers say the result leaves no room for ambiguity about local opposition.<\/p>\n

Located near Lac B\u00e9langer, roughly 80 kilometers northeast of Gatineau, La Loutre is owned by Lomiko Metals (TSXV:LMR,OTCQB:LMRMF), which says it is a potential source of graphite for electric vehicle batteries. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

China is the world’s largest producer of graphite by far, and countries around the world are looking to lock down supply of the material. In 2024, Lomiko received a US$8.35 million grant from the US Department of Defense, as well as C$4.9 million from Natural Resources Canada, as the countries looked to strengthen North America’s supply chain. <\/p>\n

But for many locals, the referendum on La Loutre was not about global supply chains, but about protecting the lakes, forests and tourism-driven economy that sustain the Petite-Nation region.<\/p>\n

Duhamel Mayor David Pharand, long opposed to the mine, said the scale of the rejection will shape what comes next. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can assure the population that the percentage of the results of this referendum will have a major impact on the decision of the government and the action that will be taken,\u201d Pharand told CBC. \u201cWe will work based on those numbers with our political, federal, and provincial members of parliament to see that this project is not funded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Provincial officials struck a similar tone. Papineau MRC prefect Paul-Andr\u00e9 David said in a statement that the results reflect widespread environmental concerns and will guide the region\u2019s stance in discussions with Qu\u00e9bec City:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe MRC will have to take the necessary measures to protect the interests of the community, by demanding that governments ensure that the sustainable management of water, air and landscapes is at the heart of discussions.’<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mathieu Lacombe, the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec member of Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s National Assembly for Papineau, called the outcome \u201cunequivocal\u201d and pledged in a Facebook post to \u201censure that the will of citizens is respected.\u201d <\/p>\n

Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault has repeatedly said in recent years that \u201cif there is no social acceptability, there will be no mining activity,\u201d a promise the Coalition du NON is now urging him to uphold.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

Coalition presses for government action <\/h3>\n

The referendum was organized with support from the Alliance des municipalit\u00e9s Petite-Nation Nord and spearheaded by local business and land-use groups under the banner of the Coalition du NON.<\/p>\n

The coalition is demanding that both provincial and federal governments move quickly to halt the project and declare the territory incompatible with mining activity. Louis St-Hilaire, president of the Petite-Nation Lake Protection Group and co-spokesperson for the coalition, said the result represents a clear directive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough this referendum, citizens have shown that mining is clearly not what they want for their region and that they will continue to oppose it. Mr. Legault, the public is now asking you, in the public interest, to revoke Lomiko Metals\u2019 mining rights in this area,\u201d St-Hilaire said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Lomiko acknowledges challenge of social license <\/h3>\n

Lomiko received permits from the Qu\u00e9bec government to begin a 250 metric ton bulk sample at La Loutre on July 1, also saying in the update that it was in a permitting phase to start geotechnical site investigations. <\/p>\n

In a statement to CBC on Tuesday (September 2), the company acknowledged the referendum outcome, while stressing that \u201cthe many outstanding questions will become clearer as it carries out additional studies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Lomiko expressed disappointment after Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s government declined to fund the project, saying the province appeared to be drawing \u201cpre-emptive conclusions\u201d before technical assessments were completed.<\/p>\n

Local leaders say the onus is now squarely on provincial and federal authorities to respect the verdict.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on investingnews.com<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents in five Western Qu\u00e9bec municipalities of have overwhelmingly rejected a proposed open-pit graphite mine, with 95 percent voting against the La Loutre project in a referendum. Nearly 3,000 ballots were cast on Sunday (August 31) across Duhamel, Lac-des-Plages, Lac-Simon, Ch\u00e9n\u00e9ville and Saint-\u00c9mile-de-Suffolk. Of those, 2,754 citizens voted against the asset, while only 115 were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}