FYI Resources Ltd (ASX:FYI, OTCQX:FYIRF) has boosted its finances by A$1.2 million on receiving an R&D tax incentive rebate payment for research and development (R&D) activities for the 2022/2023 financial year.
The Australian Federal Government initiative supports FYI’s innovative and fully integrated process design to produce high-quality, high purity alumina (HPA).
While the A$1.2 million rebate relates to the HPA project, the company is also developing the Minhub downstream rare earth production strategy to be based in Darwin. FYI is entering downstream rare earths production via the acquisition of Minhub Operations Pty Ltd.
About the rebate
Under the R&D Tax Incentive rebate, which is jointly administered by AusIndustry and the Australian Taxation Office, eligible companies can receive cash refunds of up to 43.5% of all eligible expenditure on designated research and development projects.
Use of funds
FYI will continue to use R&D funds towards the ongoing development of its HPA strategy of a fully integrated, low-risk, low-cost production of high purity 4N (99.99%) and 5N (99.999%) alumina materials as well as continuing downstream HPA-related product development.
R&D eligibility includes HPA project development as well as technical work conducted on advancing potential customer-requested product finish specifications for the HPA and value add specialty downstream applications such as HPA coatings for lithium-ion battery anode and cathode coating architecture and sapphire glass production.
Innovative design
FYI has developed an innovative process design for the integrated production of high-quality, HPA predominantly for electric vehicles (lithium-ion batteries), sapphire glass (LED) and other broader tech applications.
The longer-term driver for HPA, with forecasts of >17% year-on-year growth (GAGR), is the outlook for the burgeoning electric vehicle and static energy storage markets.
HPA’s primary function is in its use as a separator material between the anode and cathode in batteries to increase power, functionality and safety of battery cells. As the market grows, so will the global demand for this material.