King River Resources will pick up a hefty $452,831 rebate from the federal government for research and development costs spent developing its high purity aluminium precursor compounds for application in the flourishing lithium-ion battery industry. Using the company’s proprietary “ARC” processing technology, three separate trials of a newly commissioned lab scale pilot plant have delivered a “Type 1” precursor aluminium salt at more than 99.999 per cent purity.
Under the federal government’s research and development rebate scheme administered by the ATO, King River says it has received notification that the $452,831 spent developing its technology will come back to the company courtesy of the scheme that is designed to encourage innovative research and development.
The rebated costs apply to the research and development of the processing technology in its high purity alumina precursor salts conducted during the 2021 financial year. The government has deemed that works conducted complied with the criteria set out for the research and development scheme.
A flurry of new applications and technologies have created increased demand in recent years and opened multiple market opportunities for HPA, including in electric vehicles where HPA is used to coat separators located between the cathodes and anodes in lithium-ion batteries. It is also used in Iphone faces and LED lights, two other burgeoning markets.
The new results add to a recent maiden run of the plant that churned out a 99.9995 per cent pure Type 1 precursor salts.
The Type 1 precursor consists of an aluminium salt of 5N purity, or 99.999 per cent pure, used in lithium-ion battery cathodes. It can also be decomposed through a calcination process to create a 99.99 per cent pure high-purity alumina, or “HPA”.
King River is also looking to develop other high purity aluminium-based precursor products using its Type 1 precursor salt.
The ongoing test work forms part of the company’s definitive feasibility study that aims to leverage its proprietary ARC technology to produce high value aluminium Type 1 precursor salts for the lithium-ion battery industry that is being fuelled by electric vehicle uptake around the world. The company expects a May 2022 delivery of final results for the definitive feasibility study for its proposed 2,000 tonne per annum HPA production facility.
According to King River, global HPA demand is expected to grow at 30 per cent per annum until at least 2028 with high demand spread across the LED lighting, semiconductor and electronics, optics and battery industries.
The federal government’s research and development rebate scheme represents a material financial shot in the arm for many ASX-listed companies who otherwise may not have been able to conduct certain research.
It can however sometimes be difficult to convince the government that works are in fact research and development and it would appear that King River has already crossed that bridge ensuring that it should get over 40 per cent of its R&D costs back for these activities going forwards.
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