To accelerate the development timeline for the project, a Scoping Study and Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) on Lake Hope are being run in tandem. Pic via Getty Images.
Mining
Impact Minerals has defined a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 3.5 million tonnes at 25.1% alumina (Al2O3) for a contained 880,000 tonnes of alumina at its Lake Hope project in WA.
Plus, 88% of the resource, or about 775,000 tonnes of alumina, is in the higher confidence Indicated Resource category.
The company aims to bring Lake Hope into production to deliver high-margin end-products into a rapidly expanding global market.
“We continue our rapid journey to low-cost production in the quickly expanding, high-margin HPA business where current benchmark prices for 99.99% purity alumina or so-called 4N High Purity Alumina (HPA), are currently in the region of US$20,000 per tonne,” Impact Minerals (ASX:IPT) MD Dr Mike Jones said.
The company’s immediate focus is now on completing the Scoping Study, lodgement of a Mining Lease Application in Q3 2023 and the continuation of a Pre-Feasibility Study, which includes more comprehensive metallurgical test work and baseline environmental studies.
An initial heritage survey with the Ngadju First Nations group will commence in late June-early July.
IPT says the unique geological properties of the Lake Hope deposit will allow for a shallow, very low-cost, free-digging operation only one to two metres deep and with offsite metallurgical processing at an established industrial site.
“This large and high-grade alumina resource will underpin our quest to become one of the world’s lowest-cost producers of High Purity Alumina over the next few years,” Dr Jones said.
“This unique resource could provide multi-decade delivery of a mineral product recently added to Australia’s Critical Mineral list.
“The resource allows us to now finish our Scoping Study which will demonstrate the economics of the project and be a catalyst for Impact to lodge a Mining Lease Application in the next quarter.”
Notably, Impact has the right to earn an 80% interest in Playa One owner of the Lake Hope Project, via an incorporated joint venture.
Playa One has developed a novel, relatively low-cost hydro-metallurgical process to convert alumina mineralisation of a type as found on Lake Hope into High Purity Alumina (HPA) with the potential to produce a purity exceeding 99.99%, (4N HPA), generally taken as the industry standard purity for product comparison.
IPT says this process indicates that, together with the unique physical and chemical characteristics of the Lake Hope clays, the entire project may offer a breakthrough in the cost of HPA production and be potentially cheaper than other HPA ores such as kaolin or feldspar.
Initial and unoptimised recoveries from the bench scale test work of the process suggest that a significant proportion of the alumina resource at Lake Hope may be converted to HPA.
Optimisation of the process is a key focus of the Pre-Feasibility Study currently in progress.
This article was developed in collaboration with Impact Minerals Limited, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
