Pure Alumina mulls buying Canadian HPA producer Polar Sapphire

The Australian explorer firm Pure Alumina Limited is planning to buy private Canadian high purity alumina (HPA) producer Polar Sapphire. Polar Sapphire makes some of the lowest cost HPA at its Toronto pilot plant available in the market at present.

Pure Alumina, formerly called Hill End Gold told its investors that both companies were negotiating towards “agreeing to formal terms of a potential transaction” by January 31 2019.

High Purity Alumina is used as a raw material for making lithium ion battery components, LED lights, smart phone screens, and surgical tools.

Polar Sapphire’s Toronto pilot plant is producing HPA and generating cashflow in the process.  Polar’s patented process produces 99.999 per cent purity HPA at one of the lowest production costs in the world and commands a higher price from buyers.

According to Pure Alumina director David Leavy, Polar has a ‘modular style’ plant that can be easily expanded by installing additional modules, which keeps capital costs extremely low.

“[This] would enable us to get into production a lot faster with significantly lower [start-up] capital expenditure,” Mr Leavy said.

“Production for the first stage, starting off with 1,000 tonnes a year, can be up and running within 12 months,” he added.

It would be easy to add further lines of 1,000 tonne each to increase production.  And the expansion cost can come out of cash flow and debt, he said.

Pure Alumina is currently undergoing a definitive feasibility study on the 8000 tonnes per annum HPA project at Yendon in Victoria, Australia, expected to be complete by the end of 2019.