Results from additional runs at its 83% owned subsidiary ALCORE’s bath pilot batch reactor are showing ABx Group (ASX:ABX) higher fluorine recovery.
Since late January, ALCORE has conducted three further runs, which indicate the ‘significant’ impacts of feed particle sizes on fluorine recovery, with a maximum of 80% being achieved from a single process stage using the bath pilot batch reactor alone.
Managing Director and CEO Dr Mark Cooksey says as anticipated, the newly commissioned equipment has allowed bath feed particle size to be optimised has assisted in achieving a higher recovery of fluorine in the latest test runs.
Analysis of the results suggests a second stage process utilising a different reactor configuration may be required to further increase the fluorine recovery to over 90%. This has been anticipated for some time and has been included into the design of the continuous pilot plant.
