Enhanced HPA output achieved ahead of offtake discussions

Earlier today, our critical mineral Investment FYI Resources (ASX:FYI) announced that its pilot plant had completed a small-scale production run of its high quality, high purity alumina (HPA) product.

The output and samples will now be used for targeted product marketing to potential customers.

Several process design refinements were incorporated in this 17-day continuous production run, delivering a 15% increase in total product output, and demonstrating improvements in process efficiencies and product recovery.

Besides paving the way for potential offtake agreements and end-user partnerships, these production runs also help optimise and enhance various aspects of the process flowsheet.

Internally, FYI’s technical team believes that the HPA output should be in line with the upper range of product quality and purity - previous runs have resulted in 5N (ie 0.99999% purity) quality. However, this purity will need to be verified independently - which FYI is progressing now. Once verified, samples can be delivered to potential customers for assessment and qualification.

What’s next?

With the production run showing positive results, we would like to see this culminate in offtake agreements with customers later this year.

We’re also keen to see an updated timeline for development of the HPA project post Alcoa’s withdrawal from Joint Venture development activities earlier this year. On this front, we’d like to see how progress on a demonstration plant is tracking, with engineering design activities already underway.