ABx Group (ASX:ABX) has received additional funding from the Australian Government to support the accelerated construction of the ALCORE pilot plant.
The company, which has a market capitalisation of $20.2 million, has banked just under $300,000 from the Australian Taxation Office for research and development (R&D) activities undertaken in the 2024 financial year.
ABx’s 83%-owned subsidiary ALCORE has developed a proprietary process to produce industrial chemicals from aluminium smelter bath waste.
The major products are hydrogen fluoride and metal sulphates.
The hydrogen fluoride is combined with aluminium hydroxide to produce aluminium fluoride, an essential chemical for aluminium metal production, via an existing commercial process.
This comes not long after ABx secured overseas finding approval from AusIndustry making it eligible to claim for R&D activities undertaken overseas between 2024 and 2026.
This applies to overseas expenditure incurred by ALCORE during 2024, 2025 and 2026, which will include over $2 million of capital expenditure for the continuous pilot plant being constructed in Bell Bay, Tasmania.
Managing Director Mark Cooksey says the offset is a valuable boost as ABx fast-tracks construction of ALCORE’s pilot plant at Bell Bay and advances its “world-first” hydrogen fluoride production technology.
ABx also expects to receive an additional R&D tax offset for activities mainly related to its wholly-owned Deep Leads Rare Earths Project in northern Tasmania.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: ABx Group
