ASX BRIEFS

IMPACT MINERALS (IPT) - Leading Sustainable Mining: Michael Jones on the Innovative Lake Hope Project, Low Carbon Footprint, and Indigenous Partnerships

July 18, 2024 • Andrew Musgrave

Share episode

Send us a text

Unlock the secrets behind Impact Minerals' innovative Lake Hope High Purity Alumina project in our latest episode of ASX Briefs! Michael Jones, Managing Director of Impact Minerals, joins us to share exclusive updates on their diverse exploration initiatives. You'll learn how a recent $3 million capital raise and an R&D rebate have fully funded their pre-feasibility study, setting the stage for groundbreaking advancements in mining operations, process plant development, and securing crucial offtake agreements. Michael also highlights the vital role of the Ngadju Aboriginal people in this journey and outlines the timeline for the upcoming mining lease and environmental surveys.

Discover how Impact Minerals is striving to lead the industry with its low carbon footprint, offering a competitive edge in global carbon dioxide emissions. Michael provides fascinating insights into the selection of the low temperature leach process for producing High Purity Alumina and the promising engineering studies for the process plant in Kwinana. This episode is packed with strategic plans and updates that showcase Impact Minerals' dedication to innovation and sustainability. Don’t miss out on this compelling discussion that underscores the company's commitment to environmentally responsible mining practices.

Andrew Musgrave:

Welcome back to ASX Briefs. And today we have Michael Jones, the Managing Director of Impact Minerals, joining us again. We'll delve into the company's diverse exploration projects, including their flagship Lake Hope High Purity Alumina project, and discuss the company's strategic plans and recent announcements. Mike, thanks for joining us again and welcome back to the ASX Briefs podcast.

Michael Jones:

Thanks very much, Andrew. Great to be here again.

Andrew Musgrave:

Now. We last spoke in mid-May and shortly after that the company had a $3 million capital raise and also received an R&D rebate. So can you provide an overview of how those funds are going to be utilised?

Michael Jones:

Yes, look, we are now fully funded to complete the pre-feasibility study that's well underway on our Lake Hope High Purity Alumina project, which is about 500 kilometres east of Perth here, and for those that have listened to the podcast before probably remember that the deposit that we have there is in the top 2 metres of a salt pan dry lake in the middle of nowhere, and we're taking that material, the clay, and converting into high-purity alumina, which is worth a significant amount per ton on the open market nowadays. So the pre-feasibility is built around issues that are going on in the mine working out where the process plant is going to be, working out which particular process we're going to use, and then all about getting offtake with clients. So those are the four big pieces of the puzzle and certainly by the end of the PFS we'll have three of those pieces more or less in place things happening at the mine, the process plant and then the actual process that we're going to use. So it's all systems go.

Andrew Musgrave:

Okay, and just talking about the PFS, obviously they are the main pillars of it, and what are some of the expected timelines that investors can look forward to?

Michael Jones:

So we should be lodging our mining lease by next week. We've been saying we're going to do that for a little while, but we have been socialising the whole concept and talking to the Ngadju Aboriginal people. They are the traditional owners of the land on which we're going to build the mine and we're very grateful for their support and we do pay our respects to them. It's been a fantastic journey so far. So we'll be entering negotiations with them in order to get to a mining agreement or an agreement that allows us to mine. So once we lodge the mining lease we will enter those negotiations and that'll probably take I don't know six to 12 months. It's not a quick process but I have no doubt we'll get there in a fair and reasonable manner. And then we will be undertaking more environmental and heritage surveys along the haul road for the mine. So those are the big things coming up getting the mine operated.

Michael Jones:

We're certainly hoping to have the mining lease granted, maybe by early 2026, maybe before, maybe sometime next year, because the environmental footprint on this project is extremely small. We're only going to leave a hole in the ground that's about one metre deep. But the other big development for the PFS is actually the process plant. We have identified a piece of ground in Kwinana which would be absolutely perfect for us and we've got engineering studies underway to see if we can fit the plant onto that property and it's looking quite good so far. So we'll be pushing ahead with that. And then the other big thing is which process are we going to use? So back in February we announced we've got two processes that we could use to produce HPA and we're probably going to select what we call the low temperature leach, which is low temperature, excuse me readily available reagents, and that's what we're basing the pre-feasibility study on. So there's a lot of news flow on that perspective coming forward.

Andrew Musgrave:

Okay, and the Lake Hope project is central to your operations, so you've had an announcement relating to the low carbon credentials, so how significant is this for the company?

Michael Jones:

Well, obviously it's all about what our carbon dioxide emissions are. It's the same for every mining or potential mining company globally and we were pleased to announce that our carbon emissions even now are sort of at least globally competitive with other methods of producing HPA, and there's only a few of those. If you look at Alpha HPA, they're sort of the standout success story in the HPA business. That code A4N, people can have a look at that Market cap about a billion dollars at the moment and they're proudly saying that their carbon emissions are the lowest because they're almost 100% done by renewables. And ours are certainly as comparable, if not lower than theirs, and that's just because of the unique nature of the deposit that we have. So we're very pleased with that and it just puts again another stamp onto the environmental credentials of this project, which are extremely small. So it's a great feather in our cap heading forwards.

Andrew Musgrave:

Okay, and at a more macro level, can you talk through the current HPA market and how the company can position itself to take advantage of it?

Michael Jones:

So there are two main uses for HPA. The first one is in LEDs, light-emitting diodes, which might seem rather banal, but all the light globes that are going in nowadays around the world we're seeing are LED-based. So we're seeing a replacement of the incandescent light globes. And of course, LEDs are also used in your smart screens and your TV screens. So if you go down to Harvey Norman you're getting an OLED or a ULED or a micro LED screen. Those have all got HPA in them in the form of sapphire wafers. And that's probably the biggest market.

Michael Jones:

And I've just started talking recently about the Vegas sphere, so I know a few listeners have come across the Vegas sphere.

Michael Jones:

It's the massive $2 billion US dollar dome in Vegas which lights up every night in different pictures, different formats. There's 1.2 million LEDs in there, and so that market is growing almost exponentially at the moment, about 20% per annum. And then the second one is in separators in lithium ion batteries. So we've all seen stories of the Tesla cars catching on fire and also, a few years ago, the Samsung phones exploding. Well, that's because the separator which stops thermal runaway or thermal buildup with the chemistry that goes on inside the battery, and so HPA is a very thermally inert, chemically inert product and they use that to stop that heat buildup. And, of course, that market is growing at a significant rate as well. So those are the two main uses. There's many other minor uses medical imaging, sapphire glass in many different industries and in semiconductors. So we're looking to get ourselves into that LED market. That's going to be the first cab off the rank for us and we should be looking to get samples to customers sometime in 2025.

Andrew Musgrave:

And beyond the Lake Hope project. Are there any new updates from other projects in your portfolio?

Michael Jones:

So, look, we've been rationalising our portfolio as we have got increasingly focused on Lake Hope. We have a deal in place to spin out our Lachlan copper gold assets. The Lachlan area of New South Wales is a big emerging area. There's a recent discovery there with Waratah, which are doing very well for copper gold, and we have many similar targets on our ground there. We're hoping that RPO will get away later this year. We've got a big ground holding in Broken Hill.

Michael Jones:

We were part of the first cohort for the BHP Explore program last year based around Broken Hill and that project. We've got some exciting news to come from that and we are in early stage discussion with potential joint venture partners there and then back here in WA we're increasingly focused now just on our Arkan project. We've dropped other grounds. That was a very early stage and we're looking to drill a copper target there, probably either late this year or early next year. So we're still keeping a little bit of exploration going but once the PFS is finished we should be getting almost exclusively focused on the Lake Hope project.

Andrew Musgrave:

Okay, Mike. Well, that's great. Plenty of activity at the company again, and we wish you all the best and we look forward to further updates in the upcoming months.

Michael Jones:

That's great, Andrew. Look forward to coming back.

Andrew Musgrave:

That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.