First 4N HPA Production for QPM from New Caledonian Ore

Queensland Pacific Metals Ltd (ASX:QPM) (“QPM” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce that lab scale testwork undertaken by Lava Blue has successfully produced 4N High Purity Alumina (“HPA”) from aluminium hydroxide feedstock produced by QPM as part of its piloting of the DNi Process^TM on New Caledonian ore. The purity of the HPA was 99.996%.

Highlights

 
• Lab scale testwork undertaken by Lava Blue successfully produces 99.996% HPA from aluminium hydroxide feedstock produced by QPM in its pilotplant.
• This represents the first major milestone in the QPM – Lava Blue working relationship post execution of the HPA license heads of agreement.
• Successful HPA production provides QPM with the confidence to proceed with further testwork and the HPA section of the Defintive Feasibility Study for the TECHProject.

In December 2021, QPM executed a License Heads of Agreement with Lava Blue regarding the use of its proprietary HPA technology for the TECH Project. One of the key early workstreams in this partnership was the successful production of HPA from QPM’s aluminium hydroxide feedstock. The success of this testwork provides QPM with the confidence to commence the next phase of testwork and to finalise the appointment of Stantec (formerly known as Engenium), Lava Blue’s preferred engineering consultant, to undertake the HPA refinery section of the TECH Project Definitive Feasibility Study (“DFS”) in conjunction with Hatch (QPM’s engineering partner).

Testwork

QPM’s pilot plant operation produced intermediate aluminium hydroxide from New Caledonian ore. Previous testwork undertaken by QPM was successful in producing high purity aluminium chloride, the final precursor to HPA. Aluminium chloride produced by QPM was sent to Lava Blue for testwork at its Queensland University of Technology (“QUT”) laboratory.

Lava Blue’s work program was to:

• Confirm that 4N HPA could be successfully produced from QPM’s aluminium chloride precursor by assaying impurities;
• Produce 4N HPA from the aluminium chloride.

Lava Blue’s testwork confirmed that QPM’s aluminium chloride was very pure. From the assay results of QPM’s aluminium chloride, Lava Blue projected HPA purity to be in the range of 99.995 – 99.998%, giving it confidence to proceed with the second part of the work program.

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