Transcription of The Stock Network Interview with Impact Minerals (ASX:IPT), Managing Director, Dr Mike Jones
Lel Smits: Impact Minerals has started the year with a number of developments across its high purity alumina and exploration portfolio. Through its 50% owned subsidiary Aluminus, the company has secured a deal to qualify the HyPura A HVA process for advanced battery applications. It’s also progressing its Lake Hope HVA project, preparing for near-term drilling at the Commonwealth Gold Silver Project under its JV with Canoco, and has expanded its position at Broken Hill through the acquisition of the historic Hornbill Gold District.
I’m joined today by Managing Director Dr Mike Jones to discuss what lies ahead for Impact Minerals.
Mike, welcome back to the Stock Network.
Dr Mike Jones: Hi Lel, great to be here again and happy New Year, although it’s February already.
Lel Smits: Absolutely, and you have had a very busy start to the year. Aluminus has signed a technology collaboration agreement with C4V to jointly develop and qualify HyPura A HVA for battery applications. How does this partnership accelerate Aluminus’s pathway from pilot scale production to commercial readiness in the US clean energy market?
Dr Mike Jones: So that’s a long question Lel, but a very good one. So C4V, battery technology company, they do the whole range of testing for the OEMs, the battery manufacturers, and so rather than us going around and knocking on 10 different battery company doors and getting the physical specifications that they need for their batteries, we can take our HPA to C4V and they will run a range of tests based on the feedback from those companies. And so we just deal with one company, we’ll be able to develop our skills in that final product specification, and basically look to pre-qualify. So when we do knock on those 10 companies doors, we can wave a certificate saying, hey look, we’ve already passed your initial tests, please take this for qualification.
And so that whole process will accelerate our entry, we hope, into the battery market, in particular in North America, where right now lithium storage batteries are all the rage, with Elon Musk having opened the first ever non-sulfuric acid spodumene processing plant for lithium hydroxide. So it’s all systems go in North America, which is why we want to be there.
Lel Smits: Brilliant. And separately, recent updates highlight strong technical progress at Lake Hope. How do these advances strengthen IMPAC’s vertically integrated high purity alumina strategy?
Dr Mike Jones: So with Lake Hope, which we have our own process for the Lake Hope material, and what we’re trying to do now is work out where in our process we might be able to fit it into the high purer process. And as part of that whole research project, we have a federally funded grant of 2.9 million dollars under their CRCP program, and we’re working with Edith Cowan University and CPC Engineering to implement membrane technology into the mining industry.
Now membranes have been used for decades in the water treatment industry, but I’ve actually been blown away by what the capability of these membranes are, and what potential they hold. And so we did announce only a few weeks ago that we’ve been able to really revolutionise our potash by-product, which is the stage one of our process, and we’ve crystallised potash directly out of a membrane crystalliser rather than a standard crystalliser, and we believe it’s going to reduce our OPEX and our CAPEX very significantly. So that’s where the work is going on at the moment, and as I say, the integration with the high purer process is coming.
As we’ve said, it’s been a busy year, and we’ve discussed the HPA commercialisation advancing, Kuniko preparing to drill the Commonwealth Gold Silver project, also with the Hoan Gold District now incorporated into the company’s broader Broken Hill strategy.
Lel Smits: What do you think investors should really be watching as the impact balances your downstream technology development with exploration upside over the coming year?
Dr Mike Jones: So we’ve been progressively divesting ourselves of all of our projects, either dropping them or doing deals, and last year we did two significant deals. We consummated a royalty over a small alluvial gold field in Queensland, and we’ve done the joint venture with Kuniko over the Commonwealth project in the Lachlan Gold Copper Belt, which as you say, they’re going to be drilling there next month, and we have a 30% free carry interest there.
We’ve maintained our interest in Broken Hill. We believe it’s got huge potential for copper, silver, which of course is all the rage at the moment, and we’ve generated some very significant targets there. So I believe that when we’re in the processing and feasibility study mode, adding a bit of exploration excitement to what we do keeps people interested, and we’ll have some exciting news on our drill targets at Broken Hill coming up.
Lel Smits: Well, I look forward to hearing more. Thank you, Mike, for the update from Impact Minerals.
Dr Mike Jones: Thanks, Lel.
Ends