The Australian Government awards a $7.5m modern manufacturing grant to ABx subsidiary Alcore

The 83% stakeholder of Alcore Limited, ABx Group Limited made public that its subsidiary has been granted $7.5 million from the Australian Government’s ‘Modern Manufacturing Initiative’ to support its proposed $16.4 million aluminium smelter bath recycling plant in Bell Bay, Tasmania.

The proposed plant is acknowledged to be the world’s elemental commercial plant to recycle aluminium smelter bath into valuable chemicals. The plant is propounded to transform 1,600 tonnes per year of aluminium smelter bath into hydrogen fluoride and other industrial chemicals. However, most of the hydrogen fluoride will be further processed into aluminium fluoride, a vital chemical for aluminium smelting, for which Australia presently imports 100% of its requirements.

A remarkable benefit of this project is the establishment of domestic aluminium fluoride production to protect the aluminium industry from supply chain disruption. This will turn out towards self-sufficiency; intensifying Australia’s manufacturing resilience and capability, while lessening dependence on international markets that have been increasingly subject to trade issues and shipping disruptions.

The long term plan of Alcore is to broaden the plant by 15 times, which will process all of Australia’s aluminium smelter baths, and supply more than 80% of Australia’s aluminium fluoride requirements.

Dr Mark Cooksey, the CEO of ABx and Alcore said, “We are pleased that Alcore’s technology was being supported by the Australian Government.”

“We are eager to deliver our Tasmanian project as soon as possible, to increase the security of supply for Australian aluminium smelters and create highly skilled manufacturing jobs. The production of aluminium fluoride from aluminium smelter bath is an exemplary illustration of the circular economy.”