ABx Group’s (ASX: ABX) 83%-owned subsidiary Alcore Limited has received the $3.3M first instalment of the previously announced $7.5M in grant funding under the Federal Government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI).
The grant funding will be used to support the proposed $16.4M aluminium bath recycling plant at Bell Bay, Tasmania (the stage 1 commercial plant).
In addition, Alcore has agreed with the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources to include activities relating to its pilot plant on the NSW Central Coast to the MMI project plan.
Alcore will match the grant funding dollar-for-dollar for the project. The pilot plant is being designed to recover fluorine from ‘excess bath’, an aluminium smelter waste product, to produce hydrogen fluoride.
In the commercial plant, most of the hydrogen fluoride will be further processed to aluminium fluoride, a high-value chemical which is essential for aluminium smelting and for which Australia currently imports 100% of its requirements.
Receiving this initial $3.3m grant funding is an exciting milestone for Alcore and provides further certainty to the construction of the pilot plant on the NSW Central Coast, which is already underway. ABx cash balance exceeds $5.2 million,” ABx Group CEO Dr Mark Cooksey said.
