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Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ) boosted by Sconi materials production

Materials
ASX:AUZ      MCAP $13.98M
29 January 2021 13:00 (AEST)
Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ) - Managing Director, Benjamin Bell

Source: Master Investor

Australian Mines’ (AUZ) Sconi Project has continued to produce NCM precursor cathode active material (P-CAM) from a single source.

The ore body of the company’s flagship project produces nickel, cobalt, and manganese, which have been successfully used to create P-CAM products including NCM523, NCM622, and NCM811 batteries. The specifications of these batteries emulate those of major electric vehicle battery manufacturers. 

Australian Mines has now accelerated research and development into producing P-CAM for nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries at the Sconi Project. Additionally, the company intends to conduct a scoping study into the economics of incorporating a P-CAM production facility into the Sconi Project.

According to Australian Mines’ Managing Director, Benjamin Bell, the company has often successfully produced independently certified battery-grade cobalt sulphate and nickel sulphate crystals for supply to potential offtake partners, as well as high-purity scandium oxide for supply to research and development partners.

“It was recognised, though, that the Sconi Project’s specific composition of nickel, cobalt, and manganese could support the production of higher value precursor cathode active material (P-CAM) from a single source,” he said.

“Preliminary work by Australian Mines suggests that the process of producing high-value P-CAM can be easily integrated in the proposed processing flowsheet for the Sconi production plant,” he added.

Benjamin went on to say that Australian Mines is planning further production runs of P-CAM for 2021, as industry participants and potential offtake partners are becoming more interested in the product. Australian Mines is also advancing offtake negotiations for battery precursor chemicals with potential partners.

Australian Mines is up 15.38 per cent and trading at 3 cents per share at 10:58 am AEDT.

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