Nouveau Monde Receives Grant From NSERC Regarding Potential Graphene Production From its Natural Flake Graphite Project

GATINEAU, QUEBEC--(Marketwired - April 20, 2016) - Nouveau Monde Mining Enterprises Inc. ("Nouveau Monde") (TSX VENTURE:NOU)(OTC PINK:NMGRF)(FRANKFURT:NM9) is pleased to announce that it has received a grant from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), to help fund one of its ongoing research and development projects. The $25,000 grant, approved under NSERC's ENGAGE program, was awarded last week to Dr. Mohamed Siaj, Professor at the Department of Chemistry at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and Director of the NanoQAM Research Centre. Dr. Siaj, in partnership with Nouveau Monde, is spearheading the project titled: Development of a Chemical Process for Low-Value Graphite Ore Transformation to Value-Added Graphene-Based Electroactive Materials.

Nouveau Monde has been working with Dr. Siaj since 2014 with the goal of creating value-added products relating to natural flake graphite ore. As part of this collaboration, Nouveau Monde will be entitled to the Intellectual Property which could be developed during the course of the project.

Eric Desaulniers, President and CEO of Nouveau Monde, stated: "We are proud to be recognized by NSERC in this way. Our high purity flake Matawinie graphite project is continuing to demonstrate strong characteristics amenable to generating high-value-added products, particularly in the lithium ion battery market. This recent grant helps to identify additional long-term opportunities for Nouveau Monde in regard to potentially generating more value-added products that can be used in the developing graphene market."

About Prof. Mohamed Siaj

Prof Mohamed Siaj received his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Laval University under the supervision of Peter McBreen, a world leader in Surface Science. Following postdoctoral training at the Colin Nuckolls group at Columbia University, New York, a leading institution in graphene research, Siaj joined the Department of Chemistry at UQAM as an Assistant Professor in 2008, and now holds the rank of Associate Professor. Prof. Siaj has extensive experience in different areas of surface science and nanomaterials-based graphene from a chemistry perspective. Siaj's group activities focus on the growth, synthesis, processing and characterization of advanced nanostructured electroactive materials and their integration into carbon electrodes for chemical and biosensors applications.

This press release was reviewed by Eric Desaulniers, M.Sc., P.Geo., President and CEO of Nouveau Monde.

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Except for historical information contained herein, this news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated by such statements. Nouveau Monde will not update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. More detailed information about potential factors that could affect financial results is included in the documents filed from time to time with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities by Nouveau Monde.