This article is a sponsored feature from Mining.com.au partner Zeotech. It is not financial advice. Talk to a registered financial expert before making investment decisions.
As Australia continues to investigate ways to decarbonise, a product that utilises Zeotech’s (ASX:ZEO) kaolin to produce ‘AusPozz™’, which improves strength and durability but with a lower carbon footprint, has caught the attention of major builders.
Brisbane-headquartered Zeotech set out to break the mould on traditional building materials by developing a simple, cost-effective pathway to produce high-performance, low-carbon concrete.
Cement Australia (jointly owned by Holcim Australia and Heidelberg Materials Australia) is the leading supplier of cement products and services across Australia and the latest to pursue a partnership with Zeotech.
The pair this week inked a non-binding memorandum of understanding to support the completion of a technical and value assessment of Zeotech’s AusPozz™, in parallel with assessing Cement Australia’s infrastructure and supply-chain options for the product.
The key ingredient the company is using to create AusPozz™ is an ultra-high purity kaolin sourced from its Toondoon Project in Queensland.
The ultra-high purity nature of Zeotech’s kaolin means it does not require beneficiation to deliver a high-kaolinite feedstock before calcination.
When kaolin is heated to around 750 degrees Celsius, it is transformed into a highly reactive material known as metakaolin, which is classified as a pozzolan and supplementary cementitious material (SCM). In concrete, metakaolin reacts with cement and water to deliver a range of performance benefits, including enhanced strength and durability.
The high performance of Zeotech’s AusPozz™ metakaolin allows it to replace up to 50% of the cement in concrete and yet still provide many performance improvements.
At the same time, AusPozz™ has 79% less embodied carbon than ordinary Portland cement, so it offers significant decarbonisation opportunities across all types of concrete. The replacement of cement with AusPozz™ is estimated to eliminate about 229,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent each year from Zeotech’s start-up production capacity of 300,000 tonnes per annum.
Pozzolanic materials have been used in building and construction for their technical benefits for more than 2,000 years.
Over 30 years ago, kaolin companies started producing and selling high-reactivity metakaolin – a manufactured pozzolan – as a performance improvement additive.
But, unlike AusPozz™, the conventional manufacturing process makes it an expensive and relatively high-carbon product, restricting its use to high-performance concrete applications.
Turning kaolin into a climate solution
CEO James Marsh tells Mining.com.au Zeotech’s kaolin exhibits exceptional natural purity, with kaolinite content exceeding 90% in raw ore.
“This enables the production of high-reactivity metakaolin economically and with a lower carbon footprint, as no wet processing is required to achieve alumina levels above 36% — a key factor enhancing reactivity,” he explains.
“By contrast, most kaolin resources contain only 30-50% kaolinite and typically require energy- and cost-intensive wet processing to beneficiate the raw ore.
“This not only increases production costs significantly but also elevates the embodied carbon of the final product.”
Zeotech has already demonstrated that AusPozz™ can be deployed on a commercial scale. In early September, the company poured about 100m3 of concrete, the equivalent of 17 truckloads, using 8 tonnes of AusPozz™, which Marsh says demonstrated exceptional performance. This was followed in late September by a successful commercial-scale concrete pumping demonstration.
Marsh says the demonstration highlighted the consistency of multiple loads and, importantly, their ease of placement, pumping, and finishing.
“The trial also confirmed that AusPozz™ integrates seamlessly into the concrete supply chain, demonstrating compatibility with batching plants, transportation, pumping systems, and placement methods,” he says.
Major industry players like Holcim Australia, Cement Australia, Queensland Transport and Main Roads, Boral, Amazon, GHD and Laing O’Rourke attended the demonstration.
From pilot pours to industry partnerships
This quickly led to a non-binding memorandum of understanding with $6 billion global construction giant Laing O’Rourke, which is keen to explore trials of AusPozz™ in its Australian projects.
Before this, Zeotech was already undertaking testing of its AusPozz™ product with Holcim Australia – one of the largest integrated suppliers and manufacturers of building materials and solutions in Australia and New Zealand.
Zeotech is also working with concrete premix suppliers to identify additional large-scale opportunities to produce and place multiple truckloads using AusPozz™ mix designs.
Construction is a multi-billion-dollar opportunity for Zeotech, with over 10 million tonnes of cement produced or imported into Australia annually.
“This represents a substantial opportunity — equivalent to 2-4 million tonnes per year, significantly exceeding the 300,000 tonnes per annum outlined in the AusPozz™ Project Prefeasibility Study,” Marsh notes.
Cement usage accounts for about 80% of concrete’s carbon footprint. AusPozz™ is designed to complement existing supplementary cementitious materials and enable the construction industry to meaningfully reduce cement usage.
The global SCM market is forecast to reach around US$40 billion ($61.3 billion) by 2030.
SCMs are the most viable alternative to mitigate carbon emissions from the cement industry, but traditional SCMs are declining.
“Fly ash supply is diminishing as coal-fired power stations close due to emissions intensity, while silica fume volumes are expected to fall as decarbonisation of steelmaking reduces byproduct output,” Marsh says.
“These trends highlight the potential of AusPozz™ to fill a critical gap in the transition to low-carbon construction materials.”
Zeotech’s trials so far have successfully demonstrated cement replacement levels of up to 50% in AusPozz™ mix designs.
Marsh says AusPozz™ metakaolin performs differently to other SCMs, delivering setting times and early strength development comparable to ordinary Portland cement (OPC), while offering “exceptional late-age performance”.
“Unlike conventional SCMs, AusPozz™ is a true cement binder replacement, capable of not only substituting OPC but also enhancing both early and late compressive strength,” he says.
Zeotech positions to lead Australia’s green build
Zeotech is swiftly positioning itself as Australia’s first commercial producer of high-reactivity Metakaolin as a supplementary cementitious material for low-carbon concrete.
This development is well timed, with governments now establishing clear guidance on managing upfront (embodied) carbon in public infrastructure projects.
New South Wales, for example, under its Decarbonising Infrastructure Delivery Policy has outlined expectations for managing upfront carbon in government building projects valued over $50 million and linear infrastructure projects over $100 million.
Zeotech is on track to start generating cashflow in 2026 via its recent $200 million binding offtake agreement with Chinese trading house Jiangsu Mineral Sources International (MSI).
Under the deal, MSI has exclusive offtake and marketing rights for 950,000 tonnes of Zeotech’s direct shipping ore (DSO) kaolin products in China – including Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as South Korea, and Japan.
DSO describes minerals that can be dug up, transported to port, and loaded straight onto a ship without the need for processing.
Based on the committed volumes and year one pricing, the initial five-year agreement is valued at about $204 million, delivering an average net margin of more than 45% across the initial term.
That equates to over $90 million in net earnings over the initial term.
Zeotech’s 28,000-hectare Toondoon Project hosts a JORC resource of 10.9 million tonnes in the higher confidence measured and indicated categories.
The resource sits within just 5% of the tenement footprint, which supports the 20-year life of mine for the AusPozz™ Project, and remains open in all directions.
The AusPozz™ PFS estimates the project will generate earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of $1.6 billion over the 20-year period.
“The planned mining and sale of direct shipping ore kaolin – supported by a $200 million offtake – in the first half of 2026 not only validates the quality of Zeotech’s kaolin resource but also provides significant early cashflow, creating a strong platform to accelerate AusPozz™ production,” Marsh says.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Mining.com.au & Zeotech
