ABx Group (ASX:ABX) has signed a lease agreement with Rio Tinto Aluminium for an industrial facility adjacent to the Bell Bay aluminium smelter in northern Tasmania.
The company’s 83% owned refining technology subsidiary ALCORE will establish a pilot plant at the facility, which comprises a 500km2 building on an industrial site and offers access to local engineering services and suppliers in Bell Bay.
ABx, which has a market capitalisation of $9 million, says the building has supported several industrial developments and includes appropriate utilities.
ALCORE intends to make minor internal modifications to facilitate the continuous plant, which will demonstrate its world-first proprietary process to produce industrial chemicals. These chemicals include hydrogen fluoride from a waste-product created during the aluminium smelting process.
The initial plant proposes to transform 1,600 tonnes per annum of aluminium smelter bath into hydrogen fluoride and other industrial chemicals. A portion of the hydrogen fluoride will be processed to aluminium fluoride.
The longer term plan is to grow the plant by 15 times, which will process all of Australia’s aluminium smelter bath and supply more than 80% of Australia’s aluminium fluoride requirements.
Speaking to Mining.com.au, ABx Chief Executive Dr Mark Cooksey says the company has had regular discussions with aluminium companies, including Rio Tinto, since ALCORE began in 2019.
“We have also had close engagement with the Tasmania Department of State Growth for many years, on ALCORE and our bauxite and rare earth activities in Tasmania,” Cooksey tells this news service.
“It took some time to finalise the agreements, as the parties are making significant commitments to the project and a reasonable level of rigour is required to make such commitments.”
Rio Tinto Bell Bay Aluminium General Manager Richard Curtis says currently, all aluminium smelters in Australia import aluminium fluoride, so if a way can be found to produce it from a waste product, that makes economic and environmental sense.
“If ABx can do this locally, that’s good for the community and the state of Tasmania, so we are happy to be able to contribute to this pilot plant,” Curtis says.
Cooksey adds that this agreement is important as it allows ALCORE to begin construction of the continuous pilot plant in an ideal facility.
“Furthermore, the support of Rio Tinto and the Tasmanian Government illustrates their interest in the success of the technology,” Cooksey says.
“The location is ideal, offering proximity to key infrastructure while allowing us to progress rapidly with minimal upfront costs. This is a significant advantage as we move closer to our goal of recycling fluorine waste into industrial chemicals at a commercial scale.
“With planning and environmental approvals underway, we are on track to place orders for most of the major equipment in Q1 2025.”
ABx notes these developments reflect ALCORE’s continued progress in advancing its technology towards commercial production.
“The key objective is to assess whether the pilot plant performs as we expect based on our earlier laboratory batch pilot plant work, so that we can construct a commercial plant with confidence,” Cooksey tells this news service.
Hydrogen fluoride is an essential chemical for producing fluorocarbons and aluminium fluoride — which is an essential chemical for aluminium metal production. In 2023, fluorine was added to Australia’s official critical minerals list.
Hydrogen fluoride is mainly produced from fluorspar, which is obtained from the mineral fluorite. Fluorspar is relatively high cost and has been identified as a critical material by Canada, the US, Europe, and Japan.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: ABx Group
