Impact Minerals (ASX:IPT) has completed the issuance of 120 million shares to secure an 80% interest in Playa One, the owner of the Lake Hope High Purity Alumina (HPA) Project.
This transaction follows the “exceptional results” of the recently completed Prefeasibility Study (PFS), which demonstrates Lake Hope has the potential to be one of the lowest-cost, lowest-carbon HPA projects globally.
The PFS highlights the unique qualities of the Lake Hope resource surface-accessible feedstock that supports simple mining, low reagent consumption, and a straightforward process flowsheet, resulting in “potentially industry-leading capital and operating costs”.
Impact confirms that all the material assumptions underpinning the production target, or the forecast financial information derived from the production target, in the PFS continue to apply and have not materially changed.
Managing Director Dr Mike Jones says the transaction is a significant milestone for Impact.
“The completion of the Prefeasibility Study confirmed that Lake Hope could become a globally competitive, low-cost and scalable HPA producer,” Jones says.
“With a simple and capital-efficient flowsheet, strong margins, and a minimal carbon footprint, Lake Hope offers us a pathway to become a leading supplier of 4N high-purity alumina as the market enters a period of rapid growth.
“Equally exciting is how Lake Hope now fits into our broader strategy. Through our recent acquisition of a 50% interest in Alluminous and the downstream HiPurA processing technology, we will look to integrate Lake Hope feedstock into a modular HPA production platform, allowing us to scale flexibly in line with market demand and customer qualification.”
Impact of next step
With the PFS now complete, the next steps include completing a Definitive Feasibility Study centred around the construction of a pilot plant, co-funded by the federal government in collaboration with CPC Engineering and Edith Cowan University, to produce HPA samples for customer qualification.
At the same time, Impact will further assess the potential integration of Lake Hope with the HiPurA technology, which Jones says could further enhance the already robust economics of this project.
As the acquisition occurred near the end of the PFS, the study only pertains to Lake Hope as a stand-alone project and does not consider integration with HiPurA. Impact believes the HiPurA acquisition will accelerate its entry into the HPA market by several years, potentially enhancing the economics of the combined projects.
HPA is aluminium oxide, or alumina, and one of its main uses is as a separator between the anode and the cathode in batteries.
Due to its thermal and chemical inertia, it prevents heat build-up from the chemical reaction in the battery, but allows the chemistry to flow through between the anode and cathode.
It is also used in a wide range of other products in small volumes, but spanning a vast range of technologies.
Playa One’s assets include six granted exploration licences and proprietary intellectual property, including two patents for metallurgical processes specifically designed for high-purity alumina production.
Impact presented at last week’s Noosa Mining Investor Conference being held at the Peppers Noosa Resort from 23-25 July. Mining.com.au was an official media partner of this year’s event.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Impact
