【Ferro-alloys.com】: Impact Minerals has moved to majority ownership of the Lake Hope high purity alumina (HPA) project in Western Australia.

The company is acquiring an 80 per cent stake in Playa One through the issue of 120 million shares. The acquisition, completed under the existing joint venture agreement, gives Impact access to Playa One’s Lake Hope project and associated intellectual property, including six granted exploration licences and two patented metallurgical processes tailored for HPA production.

The move follows the successful completion of a pre-feasibility study (PFS) in June, which confirmed the project’s strong economic potential.

Key outcomes include a net present value (NPV) of $1.165 billion (excluding by-product credits), initial capital expenditure of $259 million and operating costs of $US5860 per tonne, with potential to reduce to under $US4500 per tonne when by-product credits are included.

“This transaction is a significant milestone for Impact,” Impact Minerals managing director Mike Jones said. “The completion of the pre-feasibility study confirmed that Lake Hope could become a globally competitive, low-cost and scalable HPA producer.

“With a simple and capital-efficient flowsheet, strong margins, and a minimal carbon footprint, Lake Hope offers us a pathway to become a leading supplier of 4N (purity of 99.9 per cent aluminium oxide) high-purity alumina as the market enters a period of rapid growth.”

Jones also spoke about the strategic importance of integrating Lake Hope with the HiPurA processing technology, which was acquired after Impact purchased a 50 per cent stake in Alluminous.

“We will look to integrate Lake Hope feedstock into a modular HPA production platform, allowing us to scale flexibly in line with market demand and customer qualification,” he said.

“We will commence a definitive feasibility study centred around the construction of a pilot plant, co-funded by the federal Government in collaboration with CPC Engineering and Edith Cowan University, to produce HPA samples for customer qualification.”

The company will further assess the integration of HiPurA at Lake Hope. Impact expects this integration could accelerate market entry and improve project economics.

“The opportunities in front of us are considerable,” Jones said. “Today marks an important step forward for Impact Minerals and our expanding team of stakeholders.”

• [Editor:Alakay]