- Australian Bauxite’s (ABX) majority owned subsidiary, Alcore has begun construction of its pilot plant facility for fluorine recovery at its research centre in NSW
- The pilot plant is being developed to produce chemicals required to recover fluorine from ‘excess bath’ which is an aluminum smelter waste
- According to the company, excess bath is an increasing waste challenge while there is significant demand for fluorine
- As the only party reportedly developing this type of process, ABX expects significant economic and environmental benefits
- Shares were trading grey at 10 cents
Australian Bauxite’s (ABX) majority-owned subsidiary, Alcore has begun construction of its pilot plant facility for fluorine recovery at its research centre in NSW.
The pilot plant is being developed to produce chemicals required to recover fluorine from ‘excess bath’ which is an aluminium smelter waste.
Alcore is believed to be the only party actively developing this type of process to transform the waste material into high-value products in the fluorochemical value chain, including aluminum fluoride (AIF3).
According to the company, AIF3 is an essential mineral used in aluminium smelting and is being investigated for advanced lithium-ion batteries.
In developing within this space, the company is expecting significant economic and environmental benefits.
Alcore is collaborating with South African consulting service and fluoro-chemical equipment manufacturing company, BFluor Chemicals, on the design of the pilot-scale reactor.
The fabrication of the reactors has been completed in the Berkeley Vale industrial park in Central Coast NSW, near the company’s research centre.
Other process engineers are reportedly thermodynamically modelling the process for the fluorine recovery and Alcore has conducted confirmatory testwork.
ABX said the combination of experimental and modelling results will enable Alcore to scale up the process to commercial production as quickly as possible.
Moreover, Alcore’s CEO Dr Mark Cooksey said the opportunity to recover fluorine from excess bath is compelling during a time when excess bath is becoming more of a waste challenge and there is increasing demand for fluorine.
“It is exciting to have moved to the pilot plant stage…. we aim to demonstrate the technical feasibility at pilot scale as quickly as possible,” he said.
Shares were trading grey at 10 cents by market close.