Queensland Pacific Metals Ltd (ASX:QPM) has made strong strides toward commercialising the production of high purity alumina (HPA) from its TECH Project, producing 4N grade, 99.99% HPA from aluminium hydroxide feedstock at the Lava Blue demonstration plant.
Lava Blue will continue to operate the demonstration plant, which was commissioned in late May and early June, to produce an additional 60 kilograms of 4N HPA, which will provide valuable technical insights and samples for customer evaluation.
QPM is actively seeking to engage potential HPA customers, having recently appointed an in-house technical marketing manager who will drive offtake efforts with external HPA marketing experts.
The HPA samples already produced will be critical to those offtake negotiations, marking a major technical milestone down the path toward commercialisation.
What is HPA?
High purity alumina is both a critical mineral and a battery mineral.
It’s created from aluminium feedstock, with the main sources being aluminium from bauxite and kaolinised granite.
The material recently gained prominence as a vital mineral in the construction of electric vehicles and rechargeable batteries, coating the separator between the anode and cathode and improving thermal capacity.
The price of HPA differs greatly depending on purity, used in everything from paints, coatings and ceramics to high-end semiconductors and renewable energy technologies.
As of April 2023, battery-grade 4N HPA fetches a market price of between US$15,000 to US$25,000 a tonne. The highest purity, 5N, can go for double those numbers, although the market demand is much smaller.