Tracing back to July 2025, Impact Minerals, an Australia-based mineral exploration company, is advancing its focus on high-purity alumina (HPA) with the Lake Hope Project in Western Australia, where a completed pre-feasibility study positions it as one of the world's lowest-cost potential producers. The organisation now, besides the Lake Hope Project, reinforces its strategic commitment to HPA through Alluminous, its 50 per cent-owned entity, which is advancing the HiPurA HPA pilot plant toward commissioning.
Lake Hope Project at a glance
The project, located about 500 km southeast of Perth, holds a maiden ore reserve of 1.7 million tonnes grading 26 per cent Al₂O₃, translating to around 450,000 tonnes of contained alumina and supporting a projected 33-year mine life. With plans to ramp up to 10,000 tonnes per annum of 4N HPA (99.99 per cent) within two years, the company is aiming to gain a competitive edge through a simple, capital-efficient process with low environmental impact.
Present project scenario
In the present scenario, Alluminous is gearing up to fast-track qualified HPA production through a capital-efficient, modular pathway to commercialisation, supported by a diversified feedstock strategy in parallel with Impact's Lake Hope project.
Its current priorities remain centred on customer qualification, near-term revenue generation and disciplined scaling aligned with market demand, with immediate programs covering pilot plant commissioning, targeted customer sample campaigns, validation of the North American demonstration plant scope and advancement of Lake Hope back-engineering through the micro-plant.
On-boarding Tim Netscher
Moreover, the company has appointed Tim Netscher as Non-Executive Chairman, coinciding with progress on electrical circuit installations, batch feedstock processing trials and laboratory commissioning.
According to Tim Netscher, "The team's integrated pilot-and-lab capability and modular process architecture provide a credible path from pilot samples to bankable offtake. I look forward to working with the board and management to execute disciplined, staged growth, deepen customer partnerships and deliver strong value-adding outcomes for all stakeholders."
On this, Mike Jones, the Managing Director of Impact Minerals, stated, "He brings deep industry and governance experience and will play a critical role in guiding Alluminous through its transition from pilot operations to commercialisation. Alluminous was established to do one thing very well – get qualified HPA into customers' hands faster. The combination of a pilot-scale plant, on-site high-purity analytical capability and a modular, compact flowsheet gives us that speed, while keeping capital light and scale-up de-risked. Those are critical ingredients to win in the bespoke, specification-driven HPA markets."
Alluminous is streamlining HPA product delivery by advancing plant commissioning, initiating customer sample campaigns, validating the North American plant scope and permitting pathways, enhancing back-engineering of Impact's Lake Hope Project and driving process consolidation and optimisation for induced polarisation.
Other plans for the Lake Hope Project
In parallel, the company also has plans to integrate feedstock from the Lake Hope Project in Western Australia, leveraging its comparable chemistry and metallurgical flowsheet to enable dual-feedstock flexibility and reinforce the pathway to commercialisation.
The firm's proprietary HiPurA® process introduces a modular, scalable solvent extraction (SX) route using a sulphate-based chemical feedstock, offering the potential for significant cost advantages over conventional HPA production methods. Its key strengths include a low-capex modular design for replicable deployment, an integrated pilot plant and laboratory for rapid sample production and testing, the capability to deliver multiple high-purity alumina products beyond standard HPA and strong compatibility with the feedstock chemistry of Impact's Lake Hope Project.
The firm is now advancing plans to produce a range of high-value alumina products for diverse high-tech applications, including boehmite for battery separators, aluminium sulphate for cathode stability and solid-state batteries, aluminium nitrate as an electrolyte feedstock and high-porosity alumina for pharmaceuticals and catalysts.
Customer engagement initiatives are already in progress, with discussions on battery-grade HPA evaluation and solid-state/ceramic applications, alongside early-stage collaborations with marketing agents in Europe and North America to target defined market segments.
Also read: Impact Minerals yet again as lowest-cost global HPA producer - Lake Hope's PFS released
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