Things just got interesting for King River Resources at its immense Speewah Dome project in the Kimberley region of WA with its share price soaring 27 per cent on the back of news the company has managed to produce high purity alumina at greater than 99.99 per cent purity, otherwise known as “>4N HPA”.
The company is currently knee-deep in its feasibility study over the project that also boasts vanadium, iron and titanium, albeit King River is now firmly focussed on the economics of producing high purity alumina from it.
High purity alumina is a lucrative new age mineral that has a myriad of uses including as a coating inside lithium batteries, as an iPhone face and even in LED light globes that are rapidly replacing traditional filament globes.
King River aspires to be one of the most significant world producers of high purity alumina outside of Japan, the USA, Europe and China.
According to King River, the forecast growth for >4N HPA through to 2023 is expected to be over 40,000 tonnes equating to 26.2 per cent per annum.
Conducted by consultant, Source Certain International, five >4N HPA batches were produced by calcining high purity precursor materials and purified by King River’s refining process.
The company says the high-grade results come on the back of improvements in the decomposition of the precursor during calcination. Contamination elements such as silicon, chromium and iron reported in previous tests have now been reduced.
The HPA samples will now be sent to an independent laboratory in Perth for verification.
The Speewah Dome project covers over 650 square kilometres of tenure and hosts a colossal resource of 4.7 billion tonnes at 0.3 per cent vanadium pentoxide, 3.3 per cent titanium dioxide and 14.7 per cent iron. However, it is the high levels of alumina grading 12.5 per cent in the central part of the deposit that has been taking centre-stage in the ongoing pre-feasibility study, or “PFS”.
Release of the company’s PFS is now imminent as King River continues to tick its technology boxes.
Capital and operational cost estimates are nearing completion, whilst the company has commenced the development of a mini-pilot plant to demonstrate the production process for HPA works on a larger scale and can deliver market-ready samples.
King River is also continuing its endeavours to select a site for its operations in the Kwinana area some 30 to 40 kilometres south of Perth. According to the company, the industrial region already hosts specialist centres for chemical and resource-based processing, marine engineering and shipbuilding, together with land specifically set aside for heavy industry.
In parallel, the company is also advancing its metallurgical test work to further simplify the final calcination stage of the HPA production process. Test work to improve the high purity vanadium and titanium extraction processes from Speewah is also ongoing.
With King River producing the purest of alumina sought after by modern-day and potentially future industries, positive economics from the feasibility study at Speewah could be a watershed moment for this emerging Perth-based explorer.
Watch this space.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
