THUNDER BAY -- The province is injecting half-a-million dollars into a local exploration company, a move that promises to bring discoveries closer to development.

Zenyatta made its Albany graphite discovery in 2011. About 30 kilometres from Hearst on Constance Lake First Nation and 10 kilometres from the Transcanada Highway, officials with the company say they’ve found one of the largest graphite deposits known in the world right now.

Hydrothermal graphite is used in everything from ion-lithium batteries to solar panels.

"We're pretty optimistic," Zenyatta chief financial officer Tom Mustapic said.

The Thunder Bay company recently got $500,000 form the Northern Ontario Heritage Corporation to find the best and cheapest way to process the graphite, which can sell anywhere from $6,000 to $18,000 a tonne. The price point will be part of the preliminary economic assessment the company needs to continue.

"It's one of the steps in taking a deposit from a deposit to an actual working mine," Mustapic said.

"Really what they're looking to do is find the most efficient process for making an end product."

As for the mine itself, Mustapic said most questions will be answered once the economic assessment is complete but currently the company thinks its sitting on a deposit that could produce for 30 years.