Neometals secures funding to commercialise zeolite process

Neometals has secured funding from the Innovative Manufacturing CRC to accelerate development of its synthetic zeolite manufacturing process.

Funding will go towards a $2.6 million synthetic zeolite manufacturing plant, which if successful will be able to turn lithium refinery residue into chemicals used for green chemistry applications, which is being developed alongside the Queensland University of Technology.

QUT will contribute in-kind funding of $730,000 to the project, which is scheduled to commence in February and commissioned in September.

The announcement follows on from news in June that showed Neometals could successfully produce zeolite to commercial grade.

Managing director Chris Reed heralded those results at the time, saying they demonstrated an ability to develop an opportunity to improve the economics and environmental sustainability of the company’s downstream lithium chemical strategy.

Globally, there is approximately 2.4Mtpa of zeolite with a market value of US$13 billion per annum.