FYI Resources Ltd (ASX:FYI) and Alcoa (NYSE:AA) Australia Ltd are preparing to undertake an extended high purity alumina (HPA) trial production run at FYI’s pilot plant facility in Welshpool, WA.
This pilot plant trial – which aligns with the staged joint development project announced on October 1 – is intended to demonstrate processing efficiencies for the production of HPA via FYI’s ‘innovative and fully integrated process flowsheet’.
The extended pilot run will produce HPA to be used for further detailed product qualification and assessment by prospective customers and offtake parties, and a portion of output will be used to progress broader applications and downstream opportunities, including HPA anode development.
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Toward final engineering stages
Pilot plant production is scheduled to begin on October 19 with continuous operations (24 hours per day) for two weeks. A short break will be used to analyse production data before a further two weeks of continuous operations.
"The extended pilot plant trial is an important phase in our HPA project development. We are excited that we are approaching this milestone with Alcoa as it provides us with an ideal opportunity to finalise our initial design and engineering prior to progressing the final engineering phases,” FYI Resources managing director Roland Hill said.
"The significant quantity of HPA generated from the pilot plant will support our customer outreach program, including the provision of further assessment material as requested by the various potential offtake parties seeking to undertake detailed qualification studies on our high quality HPA.”
The trial will target 4N (99.99%) purity HPA, however 5N (99.999%) product may also be produced. Any 5N material will be used for research studies in niche downstream development applications.
The trial run will provide FYI and Alcoa with supplementary information including:
- Continued demonstration of the 'end to end' efficiency of FYI’s innovative HPA refining process;
- Quantification of operational efficiency improvements;
- Data to assist with aligning and improving FYI’s ESG goals; and
- Quantified scale up factors and validation of construction materials for proposed demonstration plant.
ESG focus on HPA production
FYI says it is committed to achieving environmentally sustainable production of HPA through its ‘innovative and fully integrated’ alternative refining process. This commitment is matched with high Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) standards that enable ‘complete product provenance and traceability’.
Information generated from the pilot will serve as a data source for ESG linked computations, carbon emission reduction and waste characterisation studies which will contribute to potential commercial recycling purposes.
About the company
FYI is positioning itself to be a significant producer of 4N and 5N grade HPA in the rapidly developing high-tech products market. The company applies both an ESG and economic overlay of itself and its operations to ensure long-term sustainability and shareholder value is created via the development of an innovative, high quality, ultra-pure HPA project.
HPA is increasingly becoming the primary sought-after input material for certain high-tech products principally for its unique properties, characteristics and chemical properties that address those applications high specification requirements such as LED’s and other sapphire glass products.
The longer-term driver for HPA, with forecasts of over 17% CAGR, is the outlook for the burgeoning electric vehicle and static energy storage markets where the primary function is in the use as a separator material between the anode and cathode in batteries to increase power, functionality, and safety of the battery cells.