Orica and Alpha HPA extend their partnership to explore the possibility of a high-purity aluminium facility in North America

To explore the viability of developing a new high-purity aluminium (HPA) manufacturing plant in North America, Orica and Alpha HPA Limited have established a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and acquired a 5 per cent ownership stake in the company.

"Building on our successful partnership with Alpha HPA in Australia, we are thrilled to further expand our relationship and explore opportunities for growth and circularity in North America. The Alpha HPA First project in Queensland has demonstrated how industrial partnerships can optimise resource use, simultaneously creating value and reducing waste," said Orica Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Sanjeev Gandhi.

The funds from the equity investment will be used to advance feasibility studies on the potential for an additional HPA manufacturing facility in North America and to advance final engineering and product marketing for the full-scale HPA First Project at Gladstone, Queensland. The remaining funds will be used for general working capital.

Meanwhile, under the non-binding MoU, the companies will jointly examine the technical and financial viability of creating a new production facility in North America to generate HPA products for the area's rapidly growing future-oriented businesses.

"Having established a strong working relationship in developing our HPA First Project, the mutual ambition to expand our relationship into North America and establish Orica as a strategic shareholder in our company is a welcome progression of our relationship. Importantly, we see these initiatives as a strong endorsement of the ongoing development of our business," said Alpha HPA Managing Director Rimas Kairaitis.

The facility would aim to capitalise on and reproduce the chemical process synergies that Orica and Alpha HPA had already successfully created in creating the HPA First Project in Gladstone. This would promote circularity between the two parties and involve the provision of process reagents and the offtake of process by-products to/from Alpha HPA's and Orica's production facilities.

About the supply of process reagents and the offtake of process by-products to/from Alpha HPA's First Project and Orica's Yarwun manufacturing facility in the Gladstone State Development Area in north Queensland, Orica and Alpha HPA had previously signed legally binding, definitive agreements with one another.