Kaolin deposits mined since last century for the porcelain and paper industries near Lal Lal are being explored for a new 21st Century need – high purity alumina.
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Mining company Hill End Gold (HEG) has acquired 100 per cent of the High Purity Alumina project and Pure Alumina Pty Ltd, a company headed by mining investment magnate and BRW Young Rich List member Tolga Kumova.
HEG is now conducting pre-feasibility studies around the Lal Lal and Pittong kaolin sites to assess their output potential and quality, which is where Ballarat comes in.
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The kaolin in the region has long been regarded as some of the best quality in the world, and is still mined by French company Imerys for their products.
High purity alumina (99.99 per cent pure aluminium oxide) is used in the manufacture of LED lights and lithium-ion batteries. An important aspect of its growing industrial requirement is for the prevention of overheating in batteries used in smartphones and in planes such as the Boeing Dreamliner.
It’s also used in the production of scratch-resistant synthetic sapphire glass.
“High purity alumina is a substantial market, and it’s growing at a rapid rate,” says Hill End Gold managing director Martin McFarlane.
“It commands a very high price for the product. It was originally serviced by a production method of taking aluminium and effectively degrading it back into the oxide material. This method removes the silica from the kaolin, leaving a high quality alumina but at a very greatly reduced cost.”
Mr McFarlane says the global market is currently around 25,000 tonnes for alumina, but demand for the oxide is growing in double-digit figures.
Investment advice journalist Barry FitzGerald of Stockhead says for HEG to become a significant alumina producer, the company “would probably need to mine no more than 100,000 tonnes of material annually to produce 40,000 tonnes of kaolin.”
This would yield 10,000 tonnes of high purity alumina, which is about 40 per cent of the world’s current consumption.
