ABx Group (ASX: ABX) has welcome the recent addition of fluorine – the main focus of the company’s 83%-owned subsidiary ALCORE – to the Australian Government’s Critical Minerals List.
Fluorine is essential for the steelmaking and aluminium smelting processes, and for the production of renewable technologies such as solar PV cells and batteries.
Despite Australia being the world’s fourth largest exporter of aluminium, the country produces zero fluorine and its smelters are entirely dependent on external sources of aluminium fluoride – primarily imports from China – to maintain smelting operations.
Alcore is progressing, using a state-of-the-art reactor, to process an aluminium smelting waste product known as excess bath to recover fluorine to produce hydrogen fluoride. Later, at commercial scale, a proportion of the hydrogen fluoride will be further processed via an existing commercial process to aluminium fluoride.
Additionally, the Australian Government has included aluminium in a new Strategic Materials List. These materials are important for the global transition to net zero and broader strategic applications, but their supply chains are not sufficiently vulnerable to meet the criteria for the Critical Minerals List.
I am exceptionally pleased that fluorine has been added to Australia’s Critical Minerals List, demonstrating the value of the ALCORE process development. It is exciting to see fluorine placed on the same footing as other critical minerals such as lithium and rare earth elements,” ABx Group Managing Director and CEO Mark Cooksey said.
“As a consequence, I anticipate ALCORE will be able to access further support from government, in addition to the $7.5 million grant already received under the Federal Government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI).”