King River Resources gains ground in HPA production, sensing a 30% demand growth

Mostly known for their vanadium and gold, an Australian mining company King River Resources is attempting to divert avenues towards high purity alumina or ‘HPA’ space, exploring their addition to the Department of Science, Energy and Resources’ Critical Minerals list.

The ASX registered high purity alumina plant by King River Resources will have to submit a comprehensive feasibility assessment for the proposed 2,000 tonnes per annum HPA production plant in May 2022 whereas global HPA demand is estimated to rise by 30% annually till 2028 serving the needs of LED lighting, semiconductor and electronics, optical and battery industries.

The requirement for HPA will heighten steered by its essential role in the manufacture of Light Emitting Diodes (LED) and Lithium-ion batteries.

The global HPA market was valued at US$1.3 billion in 2019 by ‘Allied Market Research’ but now it may topple US$4.8 billion by 2026 with a remarkable compound annual growth rate of 20.7% from 2020 to 2026.

The Company has received US$200 million in aid from the government to uphold its Critical Mineral Accelerator Initiative which provides King River support with strategically significant projects facing any challenge during development.

Meanwhile, King River Resources perceives this notion of the Government as an authorization for an increased level of funding and grants that were not present in the industry before this.

The company’s incursion in the field of high purity aluminium has led its management to put the study of 5N HPA precursor products on hold, targeting mainly the growth of 4N HPA opportunities and working on its definitive feasibility study.

While the evaluation of HPA is conducted according to its level of purity, 4N is greater than 99.99% pure and 5N is greater than 99.999% pure.

King River claims market research for 4N HPA end-users unveiled that the need for Australian export was increasing gradually with increased supply requirements surpassing the capacity of the current pilot plant. 

The company wishes to come to a parallel with the market research and laboratory test work conducted by Source Certain International which has redefined the process to make 4N HPA by altering the primary procedure in acknowledgement of the pre-feasibility study previously put forward.

King River Resources notifies that the new process for the production of HPA is comparatively affordable and eco-friendly.

They are now on a quest to physically upgrade the process to re-construct their pre-feasibility study design. Engineering and Financial modifications are on way to reboot the precursor plant design to match 4N HPA purity standards while keeping the expenditure in mind. 

Though its 5N HPA venture is being vacated by the company, for now, King River mined concrete data from the precursor, initiating a neat foundation for the 4N HPA production survey, analysing production cost and yield.