Altech Chemicals continues to progress Stage 1 construction of its high purity alumina, or “HPA”, plant in Malaysia with the erection of the workshop steel frame and placement of its roof structure now nearing completion.
Roof and wall cladding activities for the workshop are expected to start soon.
In addition, construction of the retaining wall is now about 75% completed while work has started on the first of four on-site detention storm water tanks that will store all site storm water.
Stage 1 construction of the plant started in February 2019 and is being carried out by Metix, the wholly-owned South African subsidiary of German engineering, procurement and construction contractor, the SMS group.
The plant in the Tanjung Industrial complex in Johor will produce up to 4,500 tonnes of HPA from very pure kaolin clays sourced from a shallow open pit mining operation near Meckering in WA.
Altech’s Meckering deposit has a current JORC resource of 12.7 million tonnes grading 29.5% alumina, which is sufficient to support a staggering mine life of 250 years at the expected throughput rate.
This includes a measured and indicated resources of 4.8 million tonnes grading30% alumina. In addition, the deposit has less than 1% of impurities such as iron, potassium and sodium.
HPA is utilised in high tech applications such as LED lighting, advanced mobile phones and as a separator in lithium-ion batteries to improve both safety and performance.
According to Navigant Research, HPA demand is expected to hit 86,831 tonnes per annum in 2024, up 153% from 2018.
